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^     OF -THE 

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OF 


The  end  of  the  day 


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The  Country  School 


by 
Clifton    Johnson 


With  Illustrations 
by  the  Author 


^     OF  THE 

UN\VERS\TY 

OF 


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New   York 

THOMAS 

Y.    CROWELL 

Publishers 

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Copyright,  1907, 
By  THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  &  CO. 


Published,  September,  1907 


INTRODUCTORY   NOTE 

THIS  book  is  in  no  sense  a  history  of  education, 
but  is  an  attempt  to  present  intimately  and 
clearly  the  salient  features  of  the  schools  of  the 
last  century  in  their  more  picturesque  and  poetic  aspects. 
I  do  not  deal  with  theories  or  ideals  or  technical  details, 
but  portray  those  things  which  linger  in  the  memory  of 
whoever  has  attended  such  schools.  The  charm  of  the 
old  school  days  never  wears  off  —  and  it  is  the  charm 
that  dwells  in  one's  remembrance,  even  if  there  was 
some  bitter  mixed  with  the  sweet.  My  endeavor  has 
simply  been  to  make  this  mystic  and  delectable  past 
alive  once  more. 

The  material  is  not  a  compilation  from  other  books, 
but  is  based  entirely  on  personal  experiences,  in  part 
my  own,  but  more  largely  those  of  friends  and  acquaint- 
ances. Some  of  these  friends  and  acquaintances  are 
no  longer  living,  and  the  reminiscences  of  the  earlier 
schools  with  which  they  supplied  me  it  would  be  diffi- 
cult again  to  duplicate. 

In  addition  to  the  descriptions  of  characteristic  schools, 
I  devote  a  chapter  to  verbatim  compositions  and  defini- 
tions which  seem  to  me  to  have  an  unconscious  humor 


162331 


iv  Introductory  Note 

that  is  exceedingly  attractive.  Lastly,  there  is  a  chapter 
containing  two  schoolhouse  dialogues.  These  were 
written  for  the  occasions  when  they  were  produced,  and 
they  have  a  kind  of  rude  and  rustic  individuality  which 
made  them  quite  successful,  and  I  think  they  will  prove 
entertaining  to  a  much  larger  public. 

CLIFTON   JOHNSON. 

Hadley,  Massachusetts. 


CONTENTS 
I 

PAGE 

Old-fashioned  School  Days,  1800  to  1830 — Winter     .        i 

II 
Old-fashioned  School  Days  — Summer  ...        24 

III 
The  Schools  between  1830  and  i860       ....      42 

IV 
Later  Characteristics,  i860  to  1900       ....      79 

V 

How  the  Scholars  Think  and  Write     .        .        .        .114 

VI 
Schoolhouse  Entertainments 142 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

The  end  of  the  day Frontispiece 

PAGE 

Schoolgirls 3 

a  little  red  schoolhouse 5 

Getting  the  teacher's  help  in  a  hard  problem  .        .  8 

A  VISIT  from  the  school  committee-man         .     opposite  lO 

Telling  grandma  about  the  day  at  school  .        .        .14 

Getting  his  arithmetic  lesson         .        .        .     opposite  18 

Starting  for  school .  20 

Snowballing .  22 

A  drawing  by  one  of  the  school  children  ...  23 

Learning  her  lesson  at  home 25 

The  road  to  learning 27 

A  play-school  in  the  hayfield         .         .         .     opposite  28 

A  recitation  in  arithmetic 30 

"Wrastling" 31 

Planting  flower-seeds 33 

The  end  of  recess •        •        -37 

An  excuse  for  being  late         ....     opposite  38 

a  jioliday  —  playing  at  gypsies 4° 

The  teacher  going  home 4' 

On  the  way  to  school       .......      44 

vii 


viii  Illustrations 

PAGE 

An  old-time  schoolgirl  costume 46 

Enjoying  a  Saturday  holiday 47 

The  school  at  work opposite  48 

Passing  the  water      .        .        .        .        .        .        .        '51 

Gymnastics 54 

A  present opposite  56 

After  school 58 

Ready  for  school opposite  60 

Out  at  little  recess 63 

Loitering  on  the  way  home  from  school      ...  67 

A  punishment 69 

The  boys  of  the  school  go  for  a  boat-ride      opposite  70 

Playing  drop  the  handkerchief 75 

In  the  meadow  at  recess 78 

A  schoolboy 80 

The  Riverbend  schoolhouse 81 

The  commonest  type  of  the  country  schoolhouse       .  83 

Sharpening  his  slate  pencil 84 

A  CLASS  IN  geography 86 

Going  to  school  with  the  teacher         ....  87 

A  schoolyard  game  of  tag       ....     opposite  88 

Starting  the  fire 90 

First  day  —  waiting  for  the  teacher    ....  93 

Cubbyhouse  dolls 95 

A  HARD  SUM           . Opposite  96 

A  drink  from  a  stream  on  the  way  home  from  school  98 


Illustrations  ix 


PAGE 


The  youngest  scholar loi 

Doing  arithmetic  examples 102 

A  New  England  academy 105 

Sharpening  one  of  the  children's  pencils     .     opposite  106 

A  rainy-day  school  at  home 108 

The  class  in  the  Fifth  Reader m 

The  good  boy  who  is  allowed  to  study  out  of  doors  113 

Writing 115 

The  looking-glass  in  the  entry 116 

The  second  class  in  reading 118 

Tommy's  ship 120 

An  illustration  by  one  of  the  little  girls         .        .121 

a  hillside  schoolhouse 122 

The  Primer  class opposite  124 

When  the  door  is  locked 126 

Helping  a  little  one  on  with  her  things     .     opposite  128 
The  teacher  gives  one  of  the  boys  a  shaking  (Drawn 

BY   THE   boy) 130 

Out  camping. —A  story 132 

A   SCHOOLBOY 133 

The  SCHOOL  on  skates opposite  134 

Facsimile  of  one   of   the  youngest   scholars'   manu- 
script       135 

The  perils  of  the  early  settlers 137 

The  SCHOOLHOUSE  in  flood-time 139 

A   HAY   FIELD I40 


X  Illustrations 


PAGE 


Blackboard  drawings:    "a  farmek,   his   little    girl, 

AND   HIS   wife" 141 

Trimming  the  Christmas  tree 143 

Speaking  his  piece *  .        .  144 

Schoolroom  decoration opposite  144 

A   HUNT  FOR   stockings 1 46 

Making  ready  for  Santa  Claus 147 

The  boys  go  to  bed   .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .  149 

Caught 1^0 

Santa  faces  the  audience         . 151 

Going  to  the  woods  for  the  Christmas  tree     opposite  152 

Comfort  by  the  open  fire 155 

The  children  surprise  their  grandpas  .        .        .        .156 

Companions 158 


The   Country  School 

I 

OLD-FASHIONED   SCHOOL   DAYS,   1800  to   1830 
WINTER 

THE  place  which  I  have  especially  in  mind  in 
describing  school  conditions  early  in  the  last 
century,  is  a  village  among  the  hills  of  western 
Massachusetts;  but  the  characteristics  I  shall  mention 
were  much  the  same  in  all  the  old  schools  of  New  England 
and  the  states  neighboring. 

One  morning,  if  you  could  have  looked  into  a  certain 
hilltop  farmhouse,  you  would  have  seen  Mrs.  Enoch 
Hale,  birch-broom  in  hand,  sweeping  her  kitchen  floor. 
It  was  the  first  week  of  December,  and  a  brisk  fire 
was  burning  in  the  cavernous  fireplace.  The  woman's 
daughter  was  wiping  off  the  table  at  the  side  of  the  room 
where  she  had  been  washing  the  breakfast  dishes.  She 
was  a  chubby  little  girl,  rather  small  of  her  age,  and  stood 
on  tiptoe  while  she  gave  the  table  a  vigorous  scouring. 

"Isn't  it  school-time,  Betsev?"  asked  her  mother. 


2  The  Country  School 

The  little  girl  hung  the  dishcloth  in  the  back  room  and 
trotted  into  the  hall  where  stood  a  solemn-faced,  tall 
clock.  She  looked  up  at  it  earnestly  a  few  moments, 
made  some  half-whispered  calculations,  and  returned  to 
the  kitchen.  *Tt's  twenty  minutes  past  eight,"  she  said 
to  her  mother. 

''Well,"  responded  the  woman,  ''change  your  apron 
and  run  along.  You  won't  be  much  too  soon.  There's 
your  dinner  basket  by  the  door.  I  put  up  your  dinner 
when  I  cleared  away  the  breakfast  things." 

Mrs.  Hale  swept  the  dust  she  had  brushed  together 
into  the  fireplace  and  went  about  her  other  housework. 
Betsey  quickly  made  herself  ready,  and  soon  was  running 
along  the  highway  toward  the  schoolhouse.  The  morn- 
ing was  clear  and  cold.  The  sun,  just  above  the  south- 
eastern horizon,  was  shining  brightly,  and  made  the  brown, 
frosty  fields  sparkle  in  the  light.  Betsey  hved  more  than 
a  mile  from  the  schoolhouse,  and  the  road  was  a  rough 
one.  For  a  part  of  the  way  it  led  through  the  woods,  but 
in  the  main  it  was  bordered  by  open  fields  and  shut  in 
by  stone  walls.  Betsey  usually  ran  down  the  hills,  and 
was  pretty  sure  to  arrive  at  the  schoolhouse  quite  out  of 
breath. 

Her  clothing  was  very  neat,  but  rude  in  pattern  and 
extremely  plain.  It  had  all  been  woven,  colored,  and 
made  up  at  home.     She  herself  had  done  some  of  the 


Old-fashioned  School  Days  —  Winter  3 

knitting,  and  had  spent  tiresome  hours  at  the  quill  wheel 
winding  thread  for  the  loom.  Her  dress  was  woollen, 
plain  and  straight,  with  no  ruffles  at  neck  or  skirt,  and 


Schoolgirls 

it  was  considerably  longer  than  would  be  worn  by  little 
girls  of  her  age  now.  Hooks  and  eyes  served  instead  of 
buttons  to  fasten  it  at  the  back.  She  wore  a  little  blue 
and  white  checked  cotton  apron,  tied  at  the  waist.     Her 


4  The  Country  School 

stout  leather  shoes  were  broad-soled  and  comfortable, 
but  only  ankle  high.  Stockings  and  mittens  were  striped 
blue  and  white.  Over  her  short-cropped  hair  she  wore 
a  small  white  woollen  blanket  about  a  yard  square.  In 
her  hand  was  the  basket  containing  her  lunch. 

When  she  came  trotting  up  to  the  schoolhouse  she  found 
a  dozen  of  her  mates  on  the  sunny  side  of  the  building 
kicking  their  heels  against  the  clapboards  and  waiting 
for  the  teacher.  Betsey  carried  her  dinner  basket  into 
the  entry  and  then  ran  out  and  said,  "Let's  play  tag  till 
the  schoolmaster  comes." 

The  others  agreed,  and  soon  all  were  in  motion,  running, 
dodging,  and  shouting  till  the  little  yard  and  narrow 
roadway  seemed  full  of  flying  figures. 

The  schoolhouse  was  a  small,  one-story  building, 
brown  with  age.  Behind,  the  woods  came  close  up, 
while  in  front  was  a  httle  open  yard  which  merged  into 
the  highway  that  came  over  the  hill  eastward  and  then 
rambled  west  along  the  level.  A  little  walk  down  the 
road  was  a  house.  No  other  was  in  sight,  though  at  least 
half  a  dozen  scattered  homes  lay  on  the  farther  side  of 
the  hill  just  beyond  view.  Opposite  the  schoolhouse  was 
a  pasture,  and  the  children  had  worn  a  rough  path  through 
the  grasses  by  the  roadside  on  their  way  to  and  from  the 
brook  over  the  wall  where  they  got  water  to  drink. 

This  morning  the  smoke  was  curling  up  from  the  chim- 


Old-fashioned  School  Days  —  Winter  5 

ney  straight  into  the  frosty  air.  The  big  boys  took  turns 
in  making  the  fire.  To-day  Jonas  Brill,  with  his  coat 
tightly  buttoned  and  the  collar  up,  cap  pulled  down  over 
his  ears,  and  hands  in  his  pockets,  had  come  stumping 
along  the  hard  frozen  road  just  after  sun-up.  There  was 
no  lock  to  the  schoolhouse  —  few  country  people  at  that 
time  thought  of  locking  doors  —  and  Jonas  walked  right 
into  the  little  entry.  The  space  on  one  side  was  half- 
filled  with  three-foot  wood.  On  the  other  side  were  rows 
of  pegs  for  the  pupils'  hats. 

An  axe  was  handy,  and  the  boy  proceeded  to  split  some 


N^tM-j^  '^' 

■'ii    ■■'/ili''l'^ 

B 

•y^  xi''^JiaM^^B^BlHlfiMtef»' 

■1 

^^Bl 

^^^H 

H|H|5PS^^*i.w»J^Jr'^^«*L 

Wm^ 

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1. 

A  little  red  schoolhouse 

kindlings.     He  carried  an  armful  of  these  inside.     Jonas 
poked  among  the  ashes,  found  the  coals  still  alive,  and 


6  The   Country  School 

soon  had  a  fine  blaze  in  the  big  fireplace.  He  brought 
in  more  wood  from  the  entry  and  some  larger  wood  from 
the  yard,  where  it  had  been  left  by  the  farmers  of  the 
district  for  the  scholars  to  cut  up.  It  was  sled  length 
as  they  left  it,  and  it  had  to  be  cut  two  or  three  times 
before  it  was  ready  for  the  fireplace.  Jonas  chopped 
what  he  judged  would  be  a  day's  supply,  then  went  in 
and  sat  in  the  master's  chair  by  the  fire  and  made  himself 
comfortable,  awaiting  the  arrival  of  his  schoolmates. 

The  room  was  plain  and  bare  —  no  pictures,  no  maps, 
not  even  a  blackboard.  The  walls  were  sheathed  with 
wooden  panels,  but  the  ceiling  was  plastered.  On  each 
side,  to  the  north  and  south,  was  a  window,  and  at  thej^ack 
two.  The  fireplace  was  on  the  fourth  side,  projecting 
somewhat  into  the  room.  To  the  right  of  it  was  the  en- 
trance, and  to  the  left  was  a  door  opening  into  a  dark 
little  closet  containing  pegs  for  the  girls  to  hang  their 
things  on,  and  a  bench  where  they  set  their  dinner  baskets. 

A  single  continuous  line  of  desks  ran  around  three 
sides  of  the  room,  leaving  an  open  space  next  the  wall 
along  which  the  big  scholars  walked  when  they  went  to 
their  places.  The  seat  accompanying  this  long  desk 
was  also  continuous,  and  the  scholars  were  obliged  to  step 
over  it  before  being  seated.  Both  seat  and  desk  were  raised 
on  a  little  platform  a  few  inches  above  the  level  of  the  floor. 
On  the  front  of  the  desk  was  another  seat,  low  down,  for 


Old-fashioned  School  Days — Winter  7 

the  smaller  children.  These  could  use  the  desk  for  a 
back,  but  had  no  desk  themselves,  while  the  older  ones 
had  the  desk,  but  no  back.  In  the  open  space,  in  front, 
was  the  teacher's  table,  and  on  it  two  or  three  books, 
an  ink  bottle  and  quills,  a  lot  of  copy  books,  and  a  ruler. 
Jonas  was  using  the  teacher's  chair,  but  he  replaced  it 
behind  the  teacher's  table  when  the  other  scholars  began 
to  arrive. 

In  the  midst  of  the  game  of  tag  some  one  cried,  "The 
schoolmaster's  coming,"  and  the  uproar  ceased. 

The  master  was  a  quiet,  rather  stern-looking  young 
man,  the  son  of  a  farmer  of  a  neighboring  town.  For 
several  winters  he  had  been  teaching,  but  not  with  the 
idea  of  making  that  his  calling.  He  had  gone  through  the 
common  schools  with  credit,  and  studied  at  an  academy 
for  a  year  or  two.  Summers  he  worked  on  the  farm,  and 
he  intended  to  be  a  farmer ;  but  in  winter  work  was  slack 
at  home,  and,  as  he  could  be  spared,  he  took  the  oppor- 
tunity to  gain  ready  money  by  teaching.  There  were 
many  young  men  in  the  country  towns  doing  likewise. 

His  pay  was  small,  but  he  was  at  no  expense  for  his 
living,  as  he  "boarded  round"  —  that  is,  he  stayed  with 
each  family  of  the  neighborhood  for  a  length  of  time  pro- 
portioned to  the  number  of  pupils  it  sent  to  the  school. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  term  the  teacher  divided  the  num- 
ber of  days  by  the  number  of  pupils,  and  thus  determined 


The  Country  School 


Getting  the  teacher's  help  in  a  hard  problem 

how  long  he  should  stay  with  each  family.  It  sometimes 
happened  that  after  staying  all  around  the  allotted  time 
there  were  still  a  few  days  left  to  teach,  and  then,  in  order 
to  have  things  come  out  even,  the  master  would  change 
his  boarding  place  every  night.  When  neighbor  met 
neighbor  it  was  always  an  interesting  topic  of  inquiry 
where  the  teacher  was  stopping  and  where  he  was  going 
next;  and  his  having  to  ''warm  so  many  beds"  was  a 
standing  joke. 

The  teacher  of  this  winter's  school  was  at  present  stay- 
ing with  the  Holmans,  and  the  four  children  of  the  family 
came  down  the  hill  with  him,  but  ran  on  ahead  when  they 


Old-fashioned  School  Days  —  Winter  9 

approached  the  schoolhouse.  All  had  dinner  baskets, 
the  master  included.  Just  before  he  reached  the  school- 
house  the  children  went  inside,  and  when  he  entered  the 
door  he  found  them  all  standing  in  their  places.  He 
removed  his  hat,  bowed,  and  said  "Good  morning." 

In  response  the  whole  school  "made  their  manners," 
or,  in  other  words,  the  boys  bowed  and  the  girls  courte- 
sied.     At  the  same  time  they  said  "  Good  morning,  sir." 

Then  the  older  ones  stepped  over  their  seats,  all  sat 
down,  and  school  began  at  once. 

The  daily  sessions  in  the  old-time  schools  were  supposed 
to  start  at  nine  o'clock,  but  few  teachers  had  watches,  and 
they  could  not  well  be  exact.  Some  would  bring  hour- 
glasses, but  the  only  timekeeper  a  school  was  sure  to  have 
was  a  noon  mark  on  a  southern  window  sill.  Even  this 
was  useless  on  clouded  days,  and  a  good  deal  of  guessing 
had  to  be  done. 

The  first  exercise  in  the  morning  was  reading  in  the 
Testament.  Each  pupil  who  was  able  read  two  verses. 
In  those  times  prayers  were  not  said  in  school,  and 
the  reading  completed  the  morning  worship.  The  older 
scholars  now  turned  their  attention  to  studying,  and 
the  smallest  children  were  called  up  to  say  their  letters. 

The  winter  term  began  the  week  after  Thanksgiving, 
and  continued  twelve,  fourteen,  and  even  sixteen  weeks. 
The  cold  weather,  bad  travelling,  and  distance  prevented 


10  The  Country  School 

most  of  the  younger  children  from  coming;  but  the 
big  boys  and  girls,  who  had  been  kept  out  at  work  dur- 
ing the  summer,  came  instead,  and  the  school  would 
number  twenty-five  or  thirty  pupils.  The  more  mature 
scholars,  though  almost  men  and  women  in  size,  were 
none  older  than  fourteen  or  fifteen.  As  a  rule  they 
left  school  for  good  at  that  age,  but  a  few  w^ould  attend 
an  academy  in  a  neighboring  town,  and  now  and  then 
a  boy  would  fit  himself  for  college  by  studying  with 
the  minister.  College  education  for  girls  was  unthought 
of,  and  no  institution  existed  where  such  education  could 
be  had  for  the  daughters. 

The  youngest  scholars  had  no  books.  When  they 
recited  they  came  up  before  the  teacher,  who  pointed 
out  the  letters  in  the  Speller  with  his  quill.  This  book 
was  the  famous  Webster's  Spelling  Book,  a  blue-covered, 
homely  little  volume,  containing,  besides  the  alphabet 
and  many  long  columns  of  words,  the  figures,  Roman 
and  Arabic,  days  of  the  week,  months  of  the  year,  ab- 
breviations, names  of  the  States,  and  various  other  things. 
The  speller  also  served j,s  a^ reader.  The  first  and  simplest 
reading  started  with,  "No  man  may  put  off  the  law  of 
God."  Farther  on  were  some  little  stories  and  fables, 
accompanied  by  a  few  rude  pictures.  Lastly  came 
the  Moral  Catechism,  starting  with  the  question,  "Is 
pride  commendable?" 


OP  THE      ^      \ 

UNIVERSITY  I 


£>tL 


Old-fashioned  School  Days  —  Winter         ii 

In  spelling,  the  children  began  with  word  fragments 
of  two  letters.  Elderly  people  sometimes  speak  of  "learn- 
ing their  a-b  abs,"  meaning  by  that  the  learning  to  spell 
syllables  of  two  letters.  They  would  spell  thus:  "A-b 
ab,  e-b  eb,  i-b  ib,  o-b  ob,  u-b  ub;  b-a  ba,  b-e  be,  b-i  bi, 
b-o  bo,  b-u  bu,  b-y  by;"  and  so  on  right  through  the 
alphabet.  By  the  time  they  possessed  a  Speller  they 
would  perhaps  be  able  to  spell  cat  and  dog  and  other 
three-letter  words.  Besides  speUing,  they  learned  some- 
thing of  the  sounds  of  the  letters  and  to  count  a  little. 
When  the  class  finished  reciting  they  were  sent  to  their 
seats.  The  smallest  children  had  neither  slates  nor 
books  to  amuse  themselves  with,  and  after  reciting  could 
only  sit  still  and  watch  and  listen  to  the  others.  Very 
tiresome  they  found  this  sometimes.  If  they  became 
restless,  so  much  the  worse  for  them,  for  the  teacher 
would  then  reprimand  them,  and  tell  them  to  fold  their 
hands  and  be  quiet,  and  perhaps  threaten  them  with 
punishment. 

The  next  older  class  were  taking  their  first  reading 
lessons  from  the  Speller.  Even  the  most  advanced  of 
the  pupils  used  that  book  to  spell  from. 

Another  of  the  school  books  of  the  time  was  "  The  New 
England  Primer."  It  was  a  small,  thin,  blue-covered 
volume,  that  contained  many  little  stories,  proverbs, 
rhymes,  and   questions,  and    quaint  woodcuts,  and  was 


12  The  Country  School 

quite  reHgious  in  tone.  In  one  place  the  alphabet  was 
given  with  a  picture  and  rhyme  for  each  letter.  Both 
pictures  and  rhymes  were  so  rude  that,  in  spite  of  the 
seriousness  of  the  themes,  they  now  seem  to  us  decidedly 
humorous.     Here  are  specimens  of  the  jingles  :  — 


/ 


"  Noah  did  view 
The  Old  World  and  New 

"  Zaccheus,  he, 
Did  climb  the  tree 
His  Lord  to  see." 

*'  Young  Obadias, 
David,  Josias, 
All  were  pious." 

About  the  middle  of  the  forenoon  the  scholars  put 
aside  other  tasks,  and  wrote.  At  close  of  school,  on 
the  night  before,  the  teacher  had  set  their  copies  —  that 
is,  he  had  written  a  sentence  across  the  top  line  of  a  page 
in  each  scholar's  ''copy  book."  The  children  made 
these  copy  books  at  home  from  large  sheets  of  blank, 
unlined  paper,  which  they  folded  and  sewed  into  a  cover 
of  brown  paper,  or  one  made  from  an  old  newspaper. 
In  school,  each  pupil  had  a  ruler  and  plummet,  and 
with  these  made  the  Hnes  to  write  on.  They  had  no 
lead  pencils,  but  the  plummet  answered  instead.  Plum- 
mets were  made  at  home  by  melting  waste  lead  and 
nmning  it  in  shallow  grooves  two  or  three  inches  long 


Old-fashioned  School  Days  —  Winter         13 

cut  in  a  stick  of  wood.  Sometimes  the  cracks  in  the 
kitchen  floor  were  found  to  be  convenient  places  to  run 
the  lead  in.  When  the  metal  cooled  a  little,  it  was  whittled 
and  smoothed  down  and  pointed,  and  perhaps,  as  a  final 
touch,  a  hole  was  bored  through  the  big  end,  that  the 
owner  might  hang  his  plummet  on  a  string  about  his 
neck. 

Children  just  beginning  to  write  made  "hooks  and 
trammels,"  the  "hooks"  being  curved  hnes,  and  the 
"trammels"  straight  ones.  After  practising  on  these 
a  while  they  were  advanced  to  letters,  and  later  to  words 
and  sentences.  Each  pupil  had  a  bottle  of  ink  and  a 
quill  pen.  Whenever  the  pen  became  worn  or  broken, 
the  teacher  was  asked  to  "mend"  it;  or,  if  entirely  used 
up,  the  scholar  would  bring  a  fresh  quill  to  the  teacher, 
and  say,  "Please,  sir,  will  you  make  my  pen  for  me?" 
and  the  teacher,  with  his  jackknife,  would  comply. 
The  mending  was  simply  whittling  it  down  and  making 
a  new  point.  There  was  quite  a  knack  in  doing  this 
quickly  and  well. 

Toward  eleven  o'clock  the  girls  had  their  recess,  but 
it  was  short,  and  gave  them  little  time  to  play.  At  the 
end  of  five  minutes  the  teacher  came  to  the  door  and 
rapped  sharply  on  the  side  of  the  building  with  his  ruler, 
which  was  the  signal  for  them  to  come  in.  Then  the 
boys  had  their  recess. 


14 


The  Country  School 


Of  history,  grammar,  and  geography  the  pupils  learned 
very  little.  The  Speller  barely  touched  on  these  subjects, 
but  the  children  had  no  separate  text-books  for  the  studies 
named.  Yet  a  few  such  text-books  had  been  printed 
and  were  being  used  to  an  increasing  degree  in  the  schools 
of  the  period. 


■:^^lliiiya|H 


Telling  grandma  about  the  day  at  school 

The  children  were  taught  to  count  on  their  fingers, 
and,  in  summer,  when  they  came  barefoot,  toes,  too, 
were  made  to  do  duty.  Some  progress,  besides,  was 
made  in  adding  and  subtracting.  In  learning  to  multiply 
they  used  little  rhymes  to  help  their  memory,  on  the 
same  plan  as  the  counting  ditty  in  Mother  Goose,  ''One 


Old-fashioned   School   Days  —  Winter         15 

two,  buckle  my  shoe,"  etc.  Finally,  when  they  were 
in  the  highest  class  in  school,  they  had  a  text-book  called 
Root's  Arithmetic.  Like  all  the  smaller  schoolbooks, 
it  had  a  grayish  blue  cover  of  paper  pasted  over  thin 
wood.  If  the  book  were  roughly  handled,  or  bent  much, 
the  wood  cracked  and  splintered,  and,  with  ten  restless 
fingers  handling  it,  the  cover,  fragment  by  fragment, 
soon  disappeared.  The  arithmetic  scholars  had  slates 
on  which  they  did  their  sums.  When  the  teacher  pro- 
nounced the  sums  correct,  these  were  neatly  copied 
from  the  slate  into  blank  books,  made  in  the  same  man- 
ner as  were  the  children's  writing  books  and  known  as 
''ciphering  books." 

The  forenoon  wore  away,  and  the  sun  shone  in  full 
at  the  southern  windows.  Just  as  the  shadow  of  the 
middle  frame  crept  into  a  little  furrow  cut  in  the  wooden 
sill  with  a  jackknife,  school  was  dismissed.  Before  the 
shadow  was  out  on  the  other  side  of  the  noon  mark 
the  girls  had  secured  their  dinner  baskets  and  wraps 
from  the  little  closet  back  of  the  chimney,  and  the  boys 
had  grabb^d  up  theirs  in  the  entry,  and  the  whole  school 
was  in  the  yard.  To-day  they  all  climbed  over  to  the 
sunny  side  of  the  stone  wall  back  of  the  schoolhouse, 
and  soon  were  busy  eating. 

Beneath  the  cloth  in  the  square  little  baskets  were  bread 
and  butter  and  doughnuts  and  gingerbread,  and  perhaps 


1 6  The  Country  School 

an  apple  or  two.  When  they  had  finished  eating  they 
began  to  chatter  more  freely,  and  most  of  the  scholars 
clambered  back  over  the  wall  and  ran  down  to  the  brook 
for  a  drink.  Lyddy  Mason  had  brought  a  bottle  of 
sweetened  water,  and  didn't  need  to  go  to  the  brook. 
The  sweetening  was  supplied  by  maple  sugar,  and  the 
rest  of  the  children  looked  on  with  envious  eyes  while 
Lyddy  emptied  her  bottle. 

In  the  wood  back  of  the  schoolhouse  were  frequent 
beech  trees,  now  bare-hmbed,  but  very  handsome  in 
their  smooth,  gray,  mottled  bark.  Among  the  leaves 
on  the  ground  were  many  of  the  brown  nuts  scattered 
there  by  autumn  winds  and  frosts.  The  squirrels  were 
busy  harvesting  them,  and  with  noisy  chatter  raced 
about  over  the  ground  and  up  the  tree  trunks.  The 
children  came  too,  and  with  bits  of  brush  poked  about 
under  the  beeches,  and  ate,  and  filled  their  pockets. 
Then,  perhaps,  they  would  start  a  game  of  ''  hide 
and  seek,"  and  when  the  child  at  the  goal  shouted 
''Coming!"  there  would  be  one  of  his  companions  behind 
every  neighboring  tree  trunk  and  boulder. 

Other  games  they  often  played  were  blindman's-bufi, 
tag,  hull-gull,  odd  or  even,  and  ball.  The  ball  was  a 
home-made  affair  of  old  stocking  raveUings  wound  to- 
gether and  covered  with  sheepskin.  The  club  was 
a  round  stick  selected  from  the  woodpile. 


Old-fashioned  School  Days  —  Winter         17 

At  about  one  o'clock  the  rapping  of  the  teacher's  ruler 
on  the  clapboards  of  the  schoolhouse  brought  the  chil- 
dren in,  and  work  was  resumed.  Spelling,  reading,  and 
writing  were  gone  through  with  again.  The  only  change 
was  in  the  case  of  the  older  scholars,  who  read_jrom 
the  Testament  in  the  morning,  but  in  the  afternoon 
used  instead  a  book  of  prose  and  verse  selections  called 
''The  Art  of  Reading." 

As  the  day  wore  on,  the  weather  grew  colder;  the 
wind  came  up  and  rattled  the  loose  clapboards,  and 
whistled  about  the  eaves  and  chimney-mouth,  and  made 
the  branches  of  the  trees  back  of  the  schoolhouse  sway 
and  shiver.  Winter  seemed  to  have  pounced  down  on  the 
region  all  at  once,  and  the  Indian  summer,  which  had 
held  on  this  year  longer  than  usual,  was  brought  to  a 
sudden  end.  A  good  deal  of  air  came  in  at  the  cracks 
of  the  little  building,  and  the  master  found  it  necessary 
to  pile  the  wood  on  the  fire  more  and  more  frequently. 
Now  and  then  one  of  the  big  boys  would  be  sent  out  in 
the  yard  for  a  fresh  armful  of  the  three-foot  sticks.  He 
would  set  them  up  against  the  wall  next  the  fireplace, 
in  which  the  flames  were  dancing  and  making  mad  leaps 
up  the  chimney,  as  if  anxious  to  join  the  tumult  of  the 
wind  outside. 

Just  after  recess  one  of  the  boys  said  all  the  cut  wood 
in  the  yard  was  gone.     Jonas  Brill,  whose  duty  it  had 


1 8  The  Country  School 

been  to  furnish  a  supply  for  the  day,  had  not  calculated 
on  such  cold  weather,  and  the  master  had  to  call  on 
two  of  the  big  boys  to  go  out  and  cut  more.  To  be  sure, 
there  was  a  small  store  of  wood  ready  cut  in  the  entry, 
but  that  was  reserved  for  an  emergency.  A  little  before 
school  closed  the  master  asked,  "Who  is  going  to  make 
the  fire  in  the  morning?  " 

WilHe  Smith  said  it  was  his  turn,  but  he  had  an  errand 
to  do,  and  he  didn't  believe  he  could  get  there  in  time. 
Jonas  Brill  then  said  he  would  make  it  again.  The 
question,  who  should  chop  the  wood  and  build  the  fire 
for  the  next  day,  was  one  which  had  to  be  decided  each 
afternoon. 

When  the  school  was  ready  to  close,  the  teacher  ap- 
pointed one  of  the  girls  to  get  her  mates'  things  from 
the  closet  and  pass  them  around.  As  soon  as  the  girls 
had  pinned  the  little  blankets  over  their  heads  and  put 
on  their  mittens,  the  whole  school  rose,  and  one  by  one, 
beginning  with  the  smallest  children,  they  were  dis- 
missed. Each  paused  at  the  door,  and  turning  toward 
the  teacher  "made  his  or  her  manners." 

Once  outdoors,  the  scholars  separated,  some  to  go 
up  the  road,  some  down,  while  three  or  four  cut  across 
lots  home.  Betsey  had  company  about  half  way.  Then 
the  road  divided,  and  she  went  on  alone.  The  sky 
had  grayed  over,  and  the  sun,  dully  glaring  in  the  haze, 


Gelling  his  arithmetic  lesson 


or  THE 


Old-fashioned  School  Days  —  Winter         19 

was  just  sinking  behind  a  western  hilltop.  The  wind 
was  blowing  sharply,  and  the  leaves  were  rusthng  along 
the  frozen  earth  trying  to  find  some  quiet  nook  or  hollow 
to  hide  in.  The  little  girl  bent  her  head  and  pushed 
on  against  the  wind,  even  humming  a  little  to  herself, 
and  seemed  not  at  all  to  mind  the  roughness  of  the 
weather. 

Nevertheless,  she  was  glad  to  get  home,  and  to  stand 
and  rub  her  hands  before  the  fire  snapping  and  blaz- 
ing in  the  big  fireplace. 

Just  before  going  to  bed,  Mr.  Hale  put  his  head  out  of 
the  door  to  see  what  the  weather  prospects  were.  The 
wind  had  gone  down  a  little,  but  it  was  snowing.  *'  Waal,'* 
he  said,  "I  thought  'twould  snow  before  morning,  but  I 
didn't  s'pose  'twould  begin  so  quick.  I  declare,  it's 
coming  down  considerable  thick,  too." 

He  withdrew  his  head,  brushed  a  few  white  flakes 
from  his  hair,  and  stood  some  minutes  by  the  fire  warm- 
ing himself.  Then  he  shovelled  the  ashes  over  the  coals 
and  went  to  bed. 

The  storm  proved  an  unusually  heavy  one.  At  day- 
hghton  the  morrow  the  air  was  still  full  of  the  falling 
flakes,  but  the  storm  slackened  presently,  and  by  break- 
fast time  it  had  stopped  snowing.  The  brown  fields 
had  been  deep  buried  in  their  winter  mantle,  and  there 
were  big  drifts  in  the  road. 


20 


The  Country  School 


Betsey  went  to  school  that  day  on  an  ox  sled.  She 
started  directly  after  breakfast,  as  the  sled  was  to  collect 
all  the  other  scholars  who  lived  along  the  way,  and  there 
were  drifts  which  must  be  shovelled  out.  Her  father 
and  three  big  brothers  went  too,  and  shouted  at  the 
oxen  as  they  plodded  along  the  roadway;  but  now  and 
then  there  was  a  pause  when  they  found  the  road  blocked 
by  a  drift  which  required  shovelling.  They  picked  up 
other  children,  and  presently  had  a  sled  full,  some  cling- 


Starting  for  school 

ing  to  the  stakes  at  the  sides,  others  sitting  on  the  bottom, 
all  shouting,  or  stamping,  or  pelting  the  oxen,  and  having 
a  great  frohc. 

Some  time  before  the  ox  sled  party  reached  its  destina- 


Old-fashioned  School  Days  —  Winter         21 

tion  Jonas  Brill  had  ploughed  his  way  through  the  snow 
to  the  schoolhouse.  He  wished  Willie  Smith  had  made 
his  own  fire  that  morning.  However,  there  was  no 
helping  the  matter.  He  stamped  the  snow  from  his 
boots  on  the  door-sill  and  carried  in  the  kindhngs  from 
the  entry;  but,  to  his  dismay,  he  found  no  coals  among 
the  ashes  —  naught  but  a  few  sparks,  which  at  once 
flashed  out.  Jonas  felt  that  his  life  was  a  hard  one. 
It  was  before  the  time  of  matches,  and  he  must  go  to 
a  neighbor's  and  borrow  some  fire.  He  pulled  off  '^a 
broad  strip  of  green  hemlock  bark  from  a  log  in  the 
yard,  and  kicked  along  through  the  snow  to  the  nearest 
house,  where  he  was  made  welcome  to  all  the  coals  he 
wanted.  He  wrapped  several  in  the  green  bark,  and 
returned. 

When  he  had  deposited  the  coals  in  the  fireplace  and 
piled  the  kindlings  on  top,  he  got  down  on  his  hands 
and  knees,  and,  by  blowing  lustily,  fanned  the  coals 
into  a  blaze ;  and  when  the  fire  was  well  started  he  went 
out  and  cleared  a  little  space  next  the  woodpile.-  There 
he  was  chopping  when  Betsey  and  the  children  with 
her  arrived  on  the  ox  sled.  Another  sled-load  soon 
came  from  the  opposite  direction,  and  the  scholars 
were  all  there. 

They  tramped  around  in  the  snow  till  the  ox  teams 
left,  and  then  went  indoors  and  crowded  about  the  fire. 


22 


The  Country  School 


Snowballing 


Shortly  afterward  the  master  came,  and  school  began. 
This  day  was  much  like  the  day  before,  except  that 
they  had  a  shorter  nooning,  because  the  deep  snow  had 
put  a  stop  to  most  of  their  open-air  sports,  and  school 
closed  earlier.  The  short  noonings  and  early  closing 
were  usual  throughout  the  term. 

Winter  had  now  fairly  begun.  In  spite  of  the  cold 
and  the  bad  travelling,  the  pupils  were  quite  regular  in 
attendance.  They,  for  the  most  part,  walked  back 
and  forth,  rarely  getting  a  ride,  unless  when,  after  a  storm, 
the  roads  had  to  be  broken  out.  The  brook,  these  winter 
days,  was  frozen  and  snow-covered,  and  the  children, 
when  thirsty,  would  hold  a  snowball  in  their  hands  till 


Old-fashioned  School  Days  —  Winter         23 

it  became  water-soaked,  and  then  suck  it.  They  did 
not  care  to  play  out  of  doors  much,  though  at  times 
some  of  the  older  boys  and  girls  would  sally  forth  and 
snowball,  or  start  a  game  of  "fox  and  geese."  The 
girls  were  kept  in  more  than  the  boys,  because  of  their 
skirts,  which  easily  became  wet  and  frozen  in  the  snow, 
and  also  on  account  of  their  shoes,  which  only  came 
ankle  high,  and  had  a  tendency  to  fill  with  snow  at  the 
sides.  They  had  no  leggings,  but  when  the  roads  were 
worst  would  perhaps  pull  on  a  pair  of  old  stockings 
over  their  shoes. 

School  kept  every  day  in  the  week  except  Sunday, 
and  there  was  no  pause  at  Christmas,  or  New  Year, 
or  Washington's  Birthday,  for  none  of  these  days  was 
made  much  of  at  that  time.  If  the  teacher  was  sick, 
or  for  some  other  reason  lost  a  day,  he  would  make  it 
up  at  the  end  of  the  term.  Thus  it  happened  that  the 
''last  day"  varied  from  Monday  to  Saturday. 


This  boy      /\^A    ^-^/         ] —     "  ^^"'^  '^^^  ^^^ 
stole  an         |\  \Sr  ^  ^^^^^  ^^  ^^ 

apple.''     I     \  11  going  to  lick  him,' 


A  drawing  by  one  0}  the  school  children 


II 

OLD-FASHIONED    SCHOOL   DAYS 
SUMMER 

THE  summer  term  began  the  first  Monday  in  May. 
In  various  ways  it  was  different  from  the  winter 
term.  The  teacher  was  not  a  man  this  time, 
but  a  young  woman.  There  were  fewer  scholars,  as 
the  big  boys  were  kept  out  to  work  on  the  farm;  but 
Betsey  Hale  came  trudging  over  from  the  farm  each 
day  with  her  dinner  basket  on  her  arm.  Something 
besides  food  was  in  the  basket  now  —  that  is,  sewing ; 
for  this  was  one  thing  taught  in  summer. 

Instead  of  the  little  white  blanket  which  Betsey  had 
worn  in  winter  for  a  head  covering,  she  now  had  a  sun- 
bonnet  made  of  copperas-colored  cotton  cloth  over  paste- 
board. This  pasteboard  had  been  made  at  home  by 
pasting  a  lot  of  old  newspapers  together,  and  it  w^as 
apt  to  be  rather  Hmpsey.  Her  dress  was  of  cotton, 
woven  by  her  mother,  in  blue  and  white  stripes,  and 
very  simple  in  its  make-up.  There  were  no  buttons 
on  it,  and  its  only  fastening  was  a  cord  at  the  neck.  She 
wore  shoes  and  stockings  to-day,  but  later  in  the  season, 

24 


Old-fashioned  School  Days  —  Summer        25 

when  the   weather  was  a   little  warmer,   she   would  go 
barefoot. 

The  schoolroom  had  been  trimmed  with  evergreens, 
and  the  wide  mouth  of  the  fireplace  had  been  filled  with 
boughs  of  pine  and  laurel. 


Learning  her  lesson  at  home 

The  teacher  had  a  pair  of  scissors  dangling  from  her 
belt  and  used  them  to  point  out  the  letters  in  the  Speller 
when  the  A-B-C  class  gathered  about  her.  A  good  many 
small  children  came  in  summer  who  could  not  get  to 
school  during  the  cold  weather  —  occasionally  one  not 


26  The  Country  School 

over  three  years  old.  Such  a  Httle  fellow  would  very 
Hkely  get  to  nodding,  and  the  teacher  would  pick  him 
up  and  carry  him  to  the  closet,  where,  on  the  bench 
with  the  girls'  dinner  baskets,  he  would  have  his  nap 
out.  By  and  by  he  would  emerge  and  toddle  to  his 
place,  quite  bright  after  his  sleep. 

Most  of  the  little  ones  were  dismissed  early,  and  those 
who  could  handle  a  needle  brought  patchwork,  so  that, 
by  reason  of  this  employment  and  the  shorter  hours, 
they  had  a  much  more  comfortable  time  of  it  than  in 
winter. 

Older  scholars,  besides  patchwork,  brought  towels 
and  tablecloths  to  hem.  Some  of  them  worked  samplers. 
Betsey  made  quite  a  large  sampler  this  term  —  fourteen 
by  twenty  inches.  It  was  on  green  canvas,  and  the 
stitches  were  taken  with  yellow  and  red  silk.  First 
a  checked  border  was  made,  then  the  alphabet  in  small 
letters  was  worked  in  across  the  top,  next  the  figures 
and  capitals,  and  under  those  a  Scripture  verse,  "Remem- 
ber thy  Creator  in  the  days  of  thy  youth."  Below  that 
came  her  name  and  age,  and,  at  the  bottom,  flowers 
in  a  flower-pot,  a  small  tree,  a  lamb,  a  dog,  and  a  lion. 

These  samplers,  when  elaborate,  were  often  framed, 
and  that  was  what  was  done  with  Betsey's,  after  the 
summer  term  came  to  an  end.  Then  it  was  hung  at 
home   in   the    "best   room"  —  that   is,   the   parlor.     As 


Old-fashioned  School  Days  —  Summer        27 

there  was  in  those  days  no  indehble  ink,  all  the  clothing 
had  to  be  marked  by  stitching,  and  the  sampler  showed 
how  to  make  the  letters. 

This  term  school  closed  every  other  Saturday.  In 
most  towns,  when  they  began  to  shorten  the  number 
of  school  days  in  a  week,  they  first  took  off  Saturday 
afternoon;  but  here  the  scholars  had  to  come  so  far 
that  it  was  thought  best  to  give  them  a  whole  day  every 
other  week.  On  Friday  or  Saturday  afternoon,  which- 
ever happened  to  be  the  last  afternoon  of  the  school 
week,  the  children  studied  the  Catechism.  It  was  a 
thin  little  book,  divided  into  two  parts.  Part  First 
was  headed  "Historical";    Part   Second  was  the   "As- 


1  nc  fuud  lu  learning 


28  The  Country  School 

sembly  Catechism."  The  historical  part  had  nearly 
two  hundred  questions  and  answers,  and  at  the  top  of 
each  page  were  two  small  square  pictures  portraying 
some  Bible  scene,  and  below  each  was  a  reference  to  the 
story  it  illustrated. 

Part  Second  had  in  it  one  hundred  and  seven  questions, 
largely  doctrinal,  beginning  with  ''What  is  the  chief 
end  of  man?" 

Once  a  year,  extending  over  three  Sundays,  the  chil- 
dren said  the  Assembly  Catechism  in  the  meeting-house. 
Just  after  the  sermon,  the  boys  on  one  side,  the  girls 
on  the  other,  they  formed  in  long  parallel  lines  in  the 
middle  aisle,  facing  each  other,  all  very  prim  and  solemn 
and  scared.  The  minister  came  down  from  the  pulpit 
overhung  by  the  big  sounding-board,  and  took  his  place 
in  the  deacons'  seat,  which  ran  along  the  front  of  the 
pulpit.  The  minister  put  the  questions  and  the  children 
answered  in  turn.  First  a  boy,  then  a  girl,  would  step 
forth  from  the  lines,  face  the  questioner,  and  give  the 
answer,  and  this  solemn  routine  continued  till  a  re- 
sponse had  been  elicited  from  the  last  little  girl,  whose 
frightened  murmur  could  scarce  be  heard  a  yard  away. 

On  the  first  Sunday  the  children  answered  as  far  as 
the  commandments  —  forty-four  questions ;  the  second 
Sunday,  they  went  on  through  the  commandments  to 
the   eighty-first   question;    and   the   third   time   finished 


f 


Old-fashioned  School  Days  —  Summer        29 

the  book.  Only  those  stood  who  could  answer,  and 
while  the  first  day  saw  quite  a  crowd  of  children  before 
the  pulpit,  on  the  final  day  the  answers  had  become 
so  difficult  that  only  a  few  of  the  older  boys  and  girls 
remained. 

There  were  five  days  in  the  year  which  were  recognized 
as  hohdays:  Fast  Day,  Independence  Day,  Training 
Day,  Election  Day,  and  Thanksgiving  Day.  The  second 
was  the  only  one  which  came  within  the  bounds  of  either 
school  term.  It  was  celebrated  rather  quietly,  and  for 
the  children  was  not  especially  different  from  any  other 
week  day  when  school  did  not  keep,  except  that  less 
work  was  given  them  to  do.  They  had  no  torpedoes, 
firecrackers,  or  toy  pistols,  and  they  made  little  noise. 

Through  all  the  hot  weather,  until  the  summer  was 
nearly  at  an  end,  the  school  continued  in  session.  On 
warm  days  the  question,  "Please,  ma'am,  may  I  go  down 
and  get  a  drink?"  was  a  frequent  one,  and  nearly  all 
day  one  or  another  of  the  children  could  be  seen  on  their 
way  to  and  from  the  pasture  hollow  where  the  brook 
ran.  They  had  no  cup  to  drink  from,  unless  they  shaped 
a  big  leaf  for  the  purpose.  Usually  they  would  kneel 
down  on  the  stones  and  dip  their  lips  into  the  stream, 
and  with  none  of  the  fear,  which  might  disturb  the 
moderns,  of  swallowing  water  snakes,  frogs,  pollywogs, 
or  like  creatures  that  were  possibly  swimming  there. 


30 


The  Country  School 


A  recitation  in  arithmetic 

The  teacher  often  allowed  some  of  the  scholars  to  go 
out  and  study  under  the  trees  "when  they  were  good." 
Many  a  time  did  Betsey  sit  under  the  beeches  in  the  grove 
behind  the  schoolhouse  with  book  in  hand;  but  the 
grove  was  not  so  good  a  study  place  as  indoors,  there 
were  so  many  things  about  to  see.  The  temptation 
was  to  fall  to  dreaming,  to  listen  to  the  wind  whispering 
through  the  boughs  and  to  the  faint  murmur  of  the  brook 
from  the  pasture  hollow,  to  watch  a  wandering  butterfly, 
the  squirrels  and  the  birds,  or  the  leaves  fluttering  above 
her  head,  or  to  turn  around  to  the  gray  tree  trunk  at  her 
back  and  gaze  in  fascination  at  the  ants  journeying 
up  and  down  the  bark.     Yet  though  these  things  inter- 


Old-fashioned  School  Days  —  Summer        31 

fered  with  her  studying,  the  experience  was  so  pleasant 

that  she  went  out  as  often  as  the  teacher  would  let  her. 

The  teachers  were  all  quite  strict  and  allowed  small 

liberty,   and   their   punishments   for  little   misdemeanors 


''Wrastling" 

were  often  severe.  However,  Betsey  herself  was  naturally 
obedient  and  gentle,  and  she  fared  very  well.  Once,  for 
making  too  much  noise,  she  had  to  stand  on  the  floor 
with  her  hands  tied  behind  her;  and  again,  for  whisper- 
ing, had  to  sit  beside  a  great,  coarse  boy.  These  were 
the  only  serious  punishments  she  ever  received. 


72  The  Country  School 

One  winter  term  two  of  the  big  girls  persisted  in  look- 
ing out  of  the  window,  and  Betsey  was  quite  frightened 
when  the  master  shook  a  warning  finger  at  them  and 
said  he  would  put  them  out  through  the  window  if  they 
looked  again.  This  teacher  chewed  tobacco,  and  had 
an  odd  way  of  holding  his  quid  between  his  lower  lip 
and  teeth,  making  a  queer  lump  on  his  chin.  The  two 
big  girls  took  revenge  on  him  by  rolling  up  wads  of  paper 
and  imitating  the  master  with  his  quid,  and  he  could 
not  very  well  punish  them  without  making  himself  ridicu- 
lous.    The  commonest  form  of  punishment  was  feruling. 

The  woman  teacher  was  addressed  as  "  Ma'am. '^ 
When  a  scholar  wished  to  speak  to  her,  he  would  not 
raise  his  hand  to  attract  her  attention,  but  would  either 
go  to  her,  or  speak  right  out.  At  close  of  school,  as 
the  children  were  leaving  the  room,  the  boys  turned 
to  the  teacher,  hats  in  hand,  and  bowed,  and  the  girls 
courtesied,    and    each   said    "Good    afternoon,    ma'am.'' 

The  children  liked  also  to  make  their  manners  when 
they  met  some  one  on  the  road.  Very  likely  several 
of  the  little  girls  would  join  hands  and  stand  by  the  way- 
side and  courtesy  to  a  person  passing,  and  then,  if  that 
person  smiled  down  on  them  and  said,  ''Nice  children, '^ 
they  were  much  pleased. 

In  summer,  as  in  winter,_the  teacher  boarded_around. 
The  summer  teacher  was  pretty  sure  to  be  young,  usually 


Old-fashioned  School   Days  —  Summer        ^7 

taught  a  few  years,  then  married,  and  taught  no  more. 
Her  pay  was  from  a  dollar  to  a  dollar  and  seventy-five 
cents  a  week. 

As  the  term  drew  to  a  close  the  scholars  began  to  learn 
"pieces"  to  speak  on  the  last  day.  A  good  many  learned 
hymns.  Betsey  studied  this  term  a  little  poem  of  Mrs. 
Earbauld^s_called  "The  Rose."  They  did  not  write 
compositions. 


Planting  flower-seeds 

Last  day  came  this  time  on  Thursday,  in  the  middle 
of  August.  The  sun  rose  clear  and  warm,  the  air  was 
heavy  and  still,   and  the  weather  promised  to  be  very 


34  The  Country  School 

hot.  All  the  children  came  dressed  in  their  best,  which 
made  the  day  seem  like  Sunday,  and  added  to  the  feel- 
ing of  strangeness  and  excitement  which  overhung  the 
great  occasion. 

Betsey  started  at  about  the  usual  time.  She  was 
barefoot,  but  carried,  besides  her  dinner  basket,  her  best 
shoes  and  stockings  in  her  hand,  for  she  must  keep  them 
from  the  dew  which  dampened  the  grass  and  from  the 
dust  of  the  roadway.  As  she  walked  along  she  repeated 
over  and  over  aloud  the  poem  she  was  to  recite  in  the 
afternoon.  When  she  got  to  the  schoolhouse,  she  wiped 
her  feet  on  the  wet  grass  and  put  on  her  shoes  and  stock- 
ings. 

The  morning  session  was  short,  and  mostly  occupied 
by  reviewing  for  the  exercises  of  the  afternoon.  Those 
children  who  lived  close  enough  then  ran  home,  and 
the  rest  went  to  the  nearest  neighbor's  and  borrowed 
chairs,  with  which  they  filled  the  open  space  back  of 
the  teacher's  table.  On  the  day  previous  they  had 
given  the  room  a  great  sweeping  and  scrubbing,  and 
had  torn  down  the  dry  evergreens  from  the  fireplace 
and  about  the  windows  and  replaced  them  with  fresh. 
Now  they  put  finishing  touches  to  the  trim,  did  various 
little  things,  and  finally  were  ready  to  eat  dinner.  Mean- 
time great  clouds  had  gathered  in  the  west  and  had 
rolled  up  across    the  sky,  and  presently  the  first    big. 


Old-fashioned  School  Days  —  Summer        35 

threatening  drops  of  a  shower  came  pelting  down.  The 
children  were  obliged  to  eat  their  dinners  indoors,  and 
as  the  storm  increased,  it  was  a  mournful  little  com- 
pany that  gathered  at  the  windows,  munching  their 
bread  and  butter  and  watching  the  lightning  flash  and 
the  sheets  of  rain  drive  past. 

But  just  as  they  had  concluded  that  "Last  day"  was 
spoiled,  the  storm  suddenly  ceased,  and  the  water-drops 
clinging  to  the  leaves  and  grasses  danced  in  the  breeze 
that  blew,  and  sparkled  in  the  sunlight,  while  the  big 
thunderheads  sank  behind  the  eastern  hilltops.  Then  the 
scholars  thought  nothing  could  have  happened  better. 

Those  that  had  gone  home  returned,  and  presently 
school  commenced.  The  visitors  began  to  arrive  soon, 
and  they  kept  coming  till  the  room  was  pretty  well 
crowded.  The  fathers  and  mothers  were  there,  and 
some  of  the  older  brothers  and  sisters;  but  the  two  per- 
sons of  most  importance  were  the  "school  committee- 
man" and  the  minister.  There  was  one  school  com- 
mittee-man in  each  district,  whose  duty  it  was  to  hire 
the  teacher,  to  see  that  the  schoolhouse  was  kept  in  re- 
pair, and  attend  to  like  matters.  The  pupils  were  quite 
awestruck  by  the  presence  of  so  many  of  their  elders, 
and  felt  that  they  must  behave  their  best,  and  their  hearts 
beat  fast  at  the  thought  of  saying  their  lessons  before 
so  many. 


36  The   Country  School 

First,  the  little  ones  were  called  out  on  the  floor  to 
recite.  They  said  the  letters,  spelled  a  few  short  words, 
counted  a  little,  answered  a  number  of  the  first  questions 
in  the  Primer,  and  some  of  the  first  questions  in  the 
Catechism.  Then  the  teacher  asked  a  list  of  questions 
about  Bible  characters,  "Who  was  the  strongest  man? 
Who  was  the  meekest  man?  Who  was  the  wisest  man? 
Who  was  the  most  patient  man?"  etc.  Lastly,  they 
were  asked  what  town  they  lived  in,  the  name  of  the 
minister,  what  State  they  lived  in,  the  name  of  the  Gover- 
nor, what  country  they  lived  in,  and  the  name  of  the 
President. 

The  next  class,  besides  reading  and  spelling  and  a 
few  simple  exercises  in  arithmetic,  gave  the  abbrevi- 
ations and  the  Roman  numerals. 

The  oldest  scholars,  after  reading  and  spelling,  re- 
peated what  they  had  learned  of  the  multiplication  table, 
and  gave  the  sounds  of  the  letters,  each  reciting  in  turn. 
Here  is  the  way  the  letter-sounding  exercise  began  :  "Long 
a,  name,  late ;  long  e,  here,  feet ;  long  i,  time,  find ; 
long  o,  note,  fort ;  long  u  or  ew,  tune,  new ;  long  y,  dry, 
defy.  Short  a,  man,  hat.  Broad  a,  bald,  tall.  Flat  a, 
ask,  part.  Diphthongs,  o-i,  o-y,  voice,  joy;  o-u,  o-w, 
loud,  now.  B  has  only  one  sound,  as  in  bite.  C  is  al- 
ways sounded  like  k  or  s,  thus :  c-a,  ca ;  c-e,  ce ;  c-i,  ci ; 
c-o,  co;   c-u,  cu;   c-y,  cy." 


Old-fashioned  School  Days  —  Summer        37 


So  they  would  rattle  it  off  to  the  end  of  the  alphabet. 
Another  thing  the  older  scholars  learned  in  school  and 
recited  last  day  was  the  names  of  the  books  in  the  Bible. 

After  this  class 


fimshed,  the  chil- 
dren were  called 
on  to  speak  their 
pieces.  One  after 
another  the  lar- 
ger pupils  came 
out  before  the 
company  and  said 
the  hymns  and 
poems  they  had 
learned.  In  start- 
ing to  speak  and  in 
closing,  the  boys 
bowed  and  the 
girls  courtesied. 

The  teacher  had 
made  a  rose  of  thin 
paper  for  Betsey 
to  hold  while  she  ^^^  ^^  ^/  ^^^^^^ 

spoke  her  piece,  but,  though  she  had  it  in  her  hand,  she 
was  so  excited  she  forgot  to  hold  it  up  for  the  audience 
to  see.     However,  she  spoke  the  piece  very  prettily. 


38  The  Country  School 

Meantime  the  writing  books  and  the  ciphering  books 
iand  samplers  had  been  passing  from  hand  to  hand  among 
the  visitors,  who  examined  them  with  considerable  care. 
Now  the  teacher  turned  to  the  visitors,  and  said,  if  there 
were  any  remarks  to  be  made,  the  school  would  be  glad 
to  hear  them.  Three  or  four  of  the  men  got  up  one 
after  the  other,  and  each  said  he  had  been  much  pleased 
with  the  exercises.  "You  are  nice  children,"  one 
man  declared;  "you  done  well." 

Another  said,  "You  have  answered  some  questions 
which  I  presume  a  good  many  of  us  older  people  present 
couldn't  have  answered." 

Lastly  the  minister  rose.  Save  for  his  mild  voice 
all  was  very  quiet  in  the  little  room.  The  children  with 
folded  hands  sat  listening,  and  the  older  people  were 
attentive  too.  Through  the  open  windows  came  the 
wind  in  a  gentle  current.  Outside,  a  multitude  of  in- 
sects mingled  their  voices  in  a  continuous  murmur, 
but  among  them,  at  intervals,  sounded  the  strident, 
long-drawn  note  of  a  Cicada.  The  breeze  made  a  light 
fluttering  in  the  trees  behind  the  building,  and  there, 
too,  a  wood  bird  was  singing.  By  the  roadside  the 
visitors'  teams  were  hitched,  and,  as  the  minutes  drow- 
sily sped,  the  children  half  consciously  heard  the  horses 
stamping,  and  nibbling  at  the  bushes. 

The   substance   of   the   minister's   remarks    was   that 


An  excuse  for  being  late 


Old-fashioned  School   Days  —  Summer        39 

the  scholars  should  be  good  children,  should  mind  their 
parents,  and  not  neglect  their  books  in  vacation,  for, 
while  "all  work  and  no  play  makes  Jack  a  dull  boy; 
all  play  and  no  work  makes  Jack  a  mere  toy."  At  the 
close  of  the  talk  the  company  bowed  their  heads,  and 
the  minister  offered  prayer.  This  ended  the  exercises 
of  the  day,  and  the  visitors  passed  out. 

The  scholars  still  remained  seated.  It  was  the  custom 
of  the  woman  teacher,  at  the  close  of  her  term,  to  give 
the  children  some  little  presents,  and  now  was  the  time 
for  distribution.  The  eyes  of  the  pupils  had  wandered 
many  times  with  curious  interest  to  the  small  package 
which  had  lain  on  her  table  all  the  afternoon.  The 
gifts  it  contained  were  simple  and  inexpensive,  but  they 
gave  a  great  deal  of  pleasure.  Some  of  the  children 
received  a  half  yard  of  bright-colored  ribbon,  one  would 
get  a  man  of  sugar,  another  a  more  substantial  man 
of  tin.  Again,  it  would  be  a  picture,  or  a  stick  of  cin- 
namon, or  a  tiny  illustrated  story  book  costing  a  cent 
or  two. 

Then  the  scholars  began  picking  up  their  books  and 
other  belongings.  Betsey  got  her  copy  book  and  cipher- 
ing book  and  sampler  from  among  those  which  had 
been  passed  about  to  show  the  visitors,  her  basket  and 
bonnet  from  the  closet,  her  Primer,  Speller,  Testament, 
and  reading  book,  and  her  quills,  plummet,  ruler,  and 


40 


The  Country  School 


ink  from  her  desk,  and,  thus  loaded,  passed  through  the 
schoolhouse  door.  Her  folks  had  come  with  a  team  and 
were  talking  with  some  of  the  neighbors.  She  climbed 
into  the  wagon,  and  soon  they  jogged  off  toward  home. 


A  holiday  —  playing  at  gypsies 

Children  and  visitors  had  all  gone.  Only  the  teacher 
remained.  She  had  closed  the  windows,  and  now  sat 
with  her  elbow  on  the  table  and  her  head  on  her  hand. 
Through  the  door  came  the  murmurous  voices  of  the 
insects,  the  faint  ripple  of  the  brook  over  its  stones  in 
the  pasture,  and  the  dull  tinkle  of  a  cowbell  far  ojf. 


Old-fashioned  School  Days  —  Summer       41 

Presently  a  team  came  rattling  along  the  highway 
and  stopped  before  the  schoolhouse.  The  teacher  rose 
quickly,  gathered  up  her  few  things,  and  went  out.  She 
lived  six  miles  distant,  and  was  now  going  home.  Her 
father  had  driven  over  to  visit  the  school,  and  since  the 
close  of  the  exercises  he  had  been  to  her  last  boarding 
place  to  get  the  little  hair  trunk  which  was  in  the  back 
part  of  the  wagon.  The  teacher  climbed  in,  the  man 
clucked  to  the  horse,  and  with  the  sun  low  in  the  west- 
ern haze  shining  full  in  their  faces,  they  followed  the  road 
along  the  level,  and  by  its  winding,  bush-lined  course 
were  soon  hidden  from  view. 


The  teacher  going  home 


Ill 

THE   SCHOOLS   BETWEEN    1830  and    i860 

IN  times  of  peace  the  changes  wrought  in  the  habits, 
manners,  and  institutions  of  a  people  are  very 
gradual.  Shreds  and  remnants  of  every  custom 
which  has  had  general  acceptance  linger  long  after  that 
custom  has  in  most  quarters  disappeared.  Thus,  in 
the  New  England  school  of  the  period  just  preceding 
the  Civil  War,  the  educational  methods  and  the  school- 
room environment  continued  in  many  communities  to  be 
much  the  same  as  half  a  century  before.  What  is  here 
recounted  is  fairly  characteristic  of  the  majority  of  schools 
and  neighborhoods,  but  it  will  not  bear  a  too  literal  appli- 
cation to  particular  towns  and  villages. 

The  school  year  still  consisted  of  two  terms,  one  in 
summer  and  the  other  in  winter.  As  a  rule,  a  man 
taught  in  winter  and  a  woman  in  summer,  and  the  teach- 
ers "boarded  round."  The  custom  of  boarding  round 
was,  however,  less  universal  than  formerly,  and  was 
gradually  falling  into  disuse.  Schoolbooks  were  becom- 
ing more  varied  and  numerous,  and  were  less  stilted 
in  style  than  in  times  past.     Nor  were  they  so  solemnly 

42 


The  Schools  between   1830  and   i860         43 

religious  as  they  had  been.  Instead,  they  were  inclined 
to  be  gently  moralizing,  and  never  told  a  story  without 
preaching  a  little  sermon  at  the  end,  even  if  they  did 
not  pause  now  and  then  midway  to  give  a  dose  of 
proper  advice. 

I  wish  to  describe  with  some  detail  an  average  school 
of  the  period  located  in  an  outlying  village  of  one  of  the 
old  Massachusetts  towns  of  the  Connecticut  Valley.  The 
score  of  houses  which  made  up  the  hamlet  were  scattered 
along  a  two-mile  strip  of  meadow  land  which  lay  between 
a  low  mountain  ridge  on  the  east  and  the  river  on  the 
west.  Midway  on  the  single  north  and  south  road  stood 
the  weather-worn  little  school  building.  A  narrow,  open 
yard,  worn  bare  of  grass  for  a  space  about  the  doorstep, 
separated  the  schoolhouse  from  the  dusty  road.  At  one 
end  of  the  building  a  big  apple  tree  partly  shadowed  it. 
At  the  other  end  was  a  lean-to  shed  where  the  wood  for 
the  fire  was  stored. 

Inside  of  the  schoolhouse,  a  narrow  entry  ran  across 
the  north  side,  but  this  was  completely  filled  in  the  middle 
by  a  great  chimney.  The  boys  kept  their  caps  on  the 
lines  of  pegs  in  the  front  entry ;  and  in  a  closet  back  of 
the  chimney,  entered  from  the  schoolroom,  the  girls 
hung  their  sunbonnets  or  hoods,  and  other  wraps. 

The  small  square  main  room  had  bare,  plastered 
walls  and  ceiling.     Not  only  was  the  plaster  grimy  with 


44 


The  Country  School 


smoke  and  age,  but  it  was  much  cracked,  and  here  and 
there  were  holes  that  the  boys  had  pounded  or  dug 
through.  Each  side  of  the  room,  except  the  north, 
had  two  windows  which  looked  out  on  the  farm  fields, 
orchards,    and    mountain.      The    chief    feature    of    the 


On  the  way  to  school 

windowless  side  of  the  room  was  a  wide  fireplace  with 
its  brick  hearth.  To  the  right  of  the  fireplace  stood 
a  broom,  and  whenever  the  crackling  fire  snapped  out 
a  coal  on  the  floor,  the  first  boy  who  saw  it  was  expected 
to  jump  up  and  brush  it  back.  It  was  not  always  that 
a  boy  would  take  the  trouble  to  brush  the  coals  back 
by  using  the  broom.     A  quicker  method   was  to   kick 


The  Schools  between   1830  and   i860         45 

them  to  the  hearth  with  his  boot  or  to  crush  the  fire  out 
by  stepping  on  it.  The  boards  about  the  hearth  were 
therefore  blackened  with  many  little  hollows  where 
the  coals  had  fallen,  and  were  also  well  strewn  usually 
with  the  powdered  charcoal  resulting  from  the  coals 
being  stepped  on.  These  miniature  explosions  from 
the  fireplace  were  quite  entertaining  to  the  children 
and  made  a  grateful  break  in  the  monotony  of  the  school 
work. 

Another  feature  of  the  north  side  of  the  room  was 
a  small  blackboard  between  the  fireplace  and  the  en- 
trance. On  this  the  big  boys  did  their  sums.  The 
girls  did  not  use  it.  A  very  moderate  amount  of  mathe- 
matics was  supposed  to  suffice  for  females,  and  they 
stopped  short  of  problems  that  needed  to  be  done  on 
a  blackboard. 

Around  the  other  three  sides  of  the  room,  against 
the  wall,  ran  a  continuous  desk,  accompanied  by  a 
backless  bench  well  polished  with  use.  To  get  to  their 
places,  or  to  leave  them,  the  boys  would  sit  down,  lift 
their  heels,  and  with  a  quick  whirl  swing  them  to  the 
other  side.  The  girls  on  their  side  of  the  room  had 
two  hinged  openings  in  this  seat,  which  could  be  lifted 
to  allow  them  to  pass  in  and  out,  but  most  of  them 
preferred  to  whirl  as  the  boys  did.  A  part  of  the  time 
the  scholars  eased  themselves  of  the  discomfort  of  their 


46 


The  Country  School 


backless  seats  by  turning  about  and  using  the  edge  of 
the    desk    as    a    support.     Within    the    hollow    square 

bounded  by  this  outer 
desk  and  seat,  on 
each  of  the  three 
sides,  was  a  mova- 
ble bench  with  a  back 
shoulder  high.  The 
end  seats  on  these 
benches  were  thought 
to  be  particularly  de- 
sirable, because  they 
were  so  built  as  to 
have  a  support  there 
for  the  elbow.  The 
benches  were  for  the 
smaller  children  who 
sat  on  them  facing  the 
center  of  the  room, 
where  was  the  teach- 
er's desk  and  a  single 
stiff  -  backed  wooden 
An  old-time  schoolgirl  costume  chair 

The  teacher's  desk  was  a  simple  four-legged  affair 
with  drawers  in  it  that  could  be  locked.  The  locking 
was  an  attribute  of  some  consequence,  for  besides  being 


The  Schools  between   1830  and   i860         47 


Enjoying  a  Saturday  holiday 

a  repository  for  various  articles  that  were  the  private 
property  of  the  teacher,  the  drawers  were  a  place  of 
detention  for  certain  belongings  of  the  pupils  which 
had  been  confiscated.  Among  the  latter,  pieces  of  rubber 
at  one  time  figured  very  prominently.  This  occurred 
while  the  school  was  passing  through  a  period  of  rubber- 
chewing.  Rubber  overshoes  were  in  those  days  made 
of  thick,  black,  natural  rubber.  After  they  were  worn 
out,  squares  that  made  very  good  erasers  could  be  cut 
from  the  heavier  parts.  The  children  discovered  that 
chewing  turned  the  rubber  white,  and  they  decided 
they  preferred  erasers  of  that  color.     In  beginning  on 


48  The  Country  School 

a  fresh  piece  the  chewing  was  far  from  easy,  but  the 
rubber  gradually  softened  as  the  process  continued. 
Often  the  older  scholars  would  get  the  smaller  ones 
to  do  the  preliminary  masticating,  and  of  course  the 
little  ones  felt  it  an  honor  to  do  this  for  the  big  pupils 
and  undertook  the  tiresome  task  willingly.  As  the 
rubber  whitened  it  became  much  more  elastic,  and  if 
you  chose,  you  could  stretch  it  over  your  fingers,  fill 
it  with  air  and  make  it  explode  with  a  pleasing  pop. 
The  master  took  aw^ay  quantities  of  it  and  put  the  spoil 
in  the  secret  recesses  of  his  desk,  or  threw  it  into  the 
fire;  but  the  little  folks  persisted  in  the  manufacture 
for  a  long  time. 

The  chief  school  dignitary  of  the  village  was  the  "pru- 
dential committee-man."  He  hired  the  teacher;  he 
bought  the  water  pail,  the  dipper,  and  the  broom;  and 
he  saw  that  the  woodhouse  was  properly  filled  and  the 
premises  kept  in  repair.  His  position  was  not  what 
the  poet  calls  "a  downy  bed  of  ease,"  for  he  was  the 
subject  of  much  comment  and  criticism.  It  was  thought 
he  had  too  strong  a  tendency  to  hire  one  of  his  own  daugh- 
ters when  he  possessed  an  unmarried  one  sufficiently 
advanced  in  age  and  learning;  and,  no  matter  who 
it  was  he  selected,  the  teacher  he  hired  frequently  failed 
to  suit  the  community.  If,  in  such  a  case,  the  com- 
mittee-man took  sides  with  the  teacher,   the  miniature 


The  Schools  between   1830  and    i860         49 

war  waxed  quite  fierce.  On  one  occasion,  in  a  quarrel 
over  a  teacher  whom  the  committee-man  would  not 
dismiss,  hostilities  were  more  than  a  year  in  duration. 
All  but  six  children  left  the  school,  and  the  dissenters 
hired  a  teacher  and  had  a  school  of  their  own  in  one 
of  the  dissenting  farmers'  little  out-buildings  which 
had  been  used  as  a  broom  shop. 

It  was  the  duty  of  the  district  committee-man  to  go  after 
the  teacher  whom  he  had  engaged,  if  that  person  lived 
in  a  neighboring  tovm.  The  committee-man  rarely 
started  soon  enough  to  get  his  charge  to  the  schoolroom 
on  time;  and  the  scholars,  who  gathered  at  nine  o'clock, 
would  "train  around  and  have  a  gay  time"  while  they 
awaited  the  teacher's  arrival.  Sometimes  the  teacher, 
before  beginning,  had  to  be  taken  to  the  ''examining 
committee"  at  the  town  center  and  his  or  her  qualifi- 
cations tested  by  sundry  questions.  In  such  a  case 
the  teacher  might  not  reach  the  schoolhouse  ready  for 
duty  until  afternoon. 

We  will  suppose  that  the  first  week  in  May  has  come, 
and  that  the  district  committee-man  has  brought  the 
new  schoolma'am.  After  leaving  her  at  the  schoolhouse, 
he  carries  her  trunk  to  his  home,  where  it  is  to  stay  through 
the  term.  She  is  to  board  round,  and  it  has  already 
been  decided  where  her  stopping  place  for  the  first  week 
shall  be.     Monday  noon  the  children  of  that  particular 


50  The  Country  School 

home  take  charge  of  her,  and  feel  it  a  great  honor  to 
escort  her  to  ''their  house"  to  dinner.  The  teacher's 
advent  into  a  family  was  always  the  occasion  of  extra 
preparation  in  the  way  of  food  and  ''tidying  up,"  and 
conversation  while  she  was  present  became  a  more  than 
ordinarily  serious  occupation. 

Boarding  round,  with  its  accompanying  necessity 
of  "visiting,"  change  of  quarters,  and  frequent  making 
of  new  home  acquaintances,  was  something  of  a  hard- 
ship. The  teacher  found  her  quarters  far  from  agree- 
able at  times;  but  there  was  no  picking  places.  The 
best  bedroom,  to  which  she  was  consigned,  was  perhaps 
stuffy  with  the  gathered  must  of  many  months'  unoc- 
cupancy,  or  the  people  were  rough  and  slatternly  in  their 
habits,  or  the  food  was  ill-cooked  or  scanty.  I  do  not 
mean  that  these  things  were  the  rule,  but  they  were  to 
the  boarder- round,  to  some  extent,  unavoidable. 

Schools  kept  from  Monday  morning  till  Saturday 
noon.  On  Saturday  afternoons  the  teacher  went  to 
the  committee-man's  and  did  her  washing.  She  stayed 
over  Sunday  and  attended  church  with  the  family.  Some 
week-day  evening,  after  school,  she  would  probably 
again  repair  to  the  committee-man's  to  do  her  ironing. 

In  winter  the  teacher  in  some  sections  found  himself 
feasted  the  whole  term  through  on  fresh  pork.  Fresh 
pork  was  esteemed  one  of  the  most  palatable  and  sub- 


The  Schools  between  1830  and  i860    51 

stantial  dishes  the  farm  produced,  and,  on  the  principle 
of  giving  the  teacher  the  best,  each  family  put  off  hog- 
killing  until  he  came.  His  invitation,  delivered  by 
the  children,  would  be :  "  Our  folks  are  goin'  to  butcher 
next  week,  and  want  you  to  come  to  stay  at  our  house." 
Or  an  excuse  for  delaying  his  visit  would  come  in  this 
form :  ''  Our  folks  want  you  to  wait  till  week  after  next, 
'cause  v.e're  goin'  to  kill  a  pig  then."  The  master  was 
heartily  sick  of  pork  long  before  the  winter  was  through. 


Passing  the  water 

Immediately  after  the  morning  session  began,  the 
teacher  read  a  selection  from  the  Testarnent  and  offered 
a   short   extempore   prayer.     Children   began   to   attend 


OF  THE     ^A 

UNIVERSITY  ] 


52  The  Country  School 

school,  in  summer,  soon  after  they  passed  their  third 
birthday.  At  first  they  had  no  books,  and  their  chief 
effort  was  given  to  sitting  still.  They  were  taught  the 
alphabet  at  the  schoolmistress's  knee,  and  perhaps 
she  pointed  out  the  letters  with  a  pretty  penknife.  The 
little  folks  found  that  penknife  wonderfully  attractive, 
and  it  was  a  great  happiness  to  handle  it  and  look  at 
it  when  the  teacher  lent  it  to  them. 

Besides  the  letters,  the  teacher  taught  the  smallest 
ones  various  little  poems,  such  as  ''Mary  had  a  Httle 
lamb,"  "Twinkle,  twinkle,  little  star,"  and 

"  How  doth  the  little  busy  bee 
Improve  each  shining  hour." 

Then  there  were  certain  jingles,  which  were  not  only 
poetry,  but  exercises  in  arithmetic  as  well.  Fancy  a 
little  tot  solemnly  repeating  the  following :  — 

"  See  me ;  I  am  a  little  child 

Who  goes  each  day  to  school ; 
And  though  I  am  but  four  years  old, 
I'll  prove  I  am  no  fool. 

"  For  I  can  count  one,  two,  three,  four, 
Say  one  and  two  make  three; 
Take  one  away,  and  two  remain, 
As  you  may  plainly  see. 


The  Schools  between   1830  and   i860         53 

"  Twice  one  are  two,  twice  two  are  four, 
And  six  is  three  times  two; 
Twice  four  are  eight,  twice  five  are  ten; 
And  more  than  this  I  do. 

*'For  I  can  say  some  pretty  rhymes 
About  the  dog  and  cat ; 
And  sing  them  very  sweetly,  too, 
And  to  keep  time  I  spat. 

"  And,  more  than  all,  I  learn  that  God 
Made  all  things  that  I  see ; 
He  made  the  earth,  he  made  the  sky, 
He  made  both  you  and  me." 

This  chant  was  accompanied  by  appropriate  gestures, 
such  as  counting  on  the  fingers,  pointing,  and  clapping. 
The  rhymes  and  verses  learned  by  the  children  were 
often  repeated  in  concert,  and  were  one  of  the  features 
of  "examination  day."  Besides  the  moralizing,  the 
arithmetical,  and  the  story-telling  verses,  the  children 
were  taught  hymns  and  short  poems  that  were  distinctly 
religious  in  nature.  When  the  teacher's  taste  was  musi- 
cal, they  had  singing  in  school,  and  the  virtues  of  the 
'•pure  and  sparkling  water"  were  extolled  in  temper- 
ance songs.  There  was  no  attempt  to  teach  the  children 
to  read  music,  and  a  book  was  rarely  used.  The  exercise 
was  introduced  simply  because  it  was  cheerful  and  agree- 


54 


The  Country  School 


able,  and  they  all  enjoyed  it.  Sometimes  the  tune  was 
''pitched"  by  the  teacher,  sometimes  by  one  of  the  better 
singers  among  the  pupils.  To  "pitch"  a  tune  was  to 
start  it  and  supposedly  get  it  neither  too  high  nor  too  low. 


Gymnastics 

By  the  time  the  smallest  children  had  the  alphabet 
learned  they  were  supplied  with  a  Webster's  Speller. 
Later  they  had  a  ''Child's  Guide,"  or  a  "Young  Reader." 
These  books  contained  some  little  stories  and  poems, 
and  were  illustrated  with  rude  woodcuts,  but  the  owners 
of  the  books  thought  the  pictures  were  very  pretty.  After 
the  first  reader  the  child  advanced  to  an  "Intelligent 
Reader,"  and  finally  to  a  "Rhetorical  Reader."    The 


The  Schools   between   1830  and    i860  55 

last-named  volume  was  not  illustrated  and  was  bound 
in  full  buff  leather  like  a  law-book.  The  reading  books 
were  only  used  in  the  afternoon;  but  several  classes 
read  from  the  New  Testament  in  the  morning.  The 
Gospels  and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  were  the  sections 
which  they  studied,  and  these  they  read  straight  through, 
skipping  nothing  but  the  opening  chapter  of  Matthew, 
which  is  mainly  composed  of  the  hard  names  of  the 
patriarchs. 

The  beginners'  book  in  mathematics  was  Colbum's 
Intellectual  Arithmetic.  Its  first  question  was,  "How 
many  thumbs  have  you  on  both  hands?"  but  in  a  few 
pages  fractions  were  reached,  and  quite  intricate  problems. 
It  was  severe  training,  and  the  scholars  all  hated  their 
Colburn's,  and  some  of  them  shed  tears  in  utter  dis- 
couragement. After  this  '^mental  arithmetic"  came 
a  *' written  arithmetic,"  which  was  apparently  supposed 
by  educators  to  be  more  difficult  than  the  former,  but 
which  the  children  found  comparatively  easy.  The 
problems  in  this  they  did  on  their  slates. 

Civilization  in  later  days  decreed  that  the  proper  way 
to  make  erasures  from  a  slate  was  to  have  a  bottle  of  water 
and  a  rag.  In  earlier  times,  and  those  not  very  far  re- 
moved, th6  natural  method  was  almost  universal;  that 
is,  the  scholar  spit  on  his  slate,  rubbed  the  moisture 
around   with   the   tips   of   his   fingers,   then   established 


56  The  Country  School 

a  more  vigorous  friction  with  the  ball  of  his  thumb, 
and  finally  polished  his  slate  off  with  the  back  of  his 
sleeve.  That  done,  he  settled  himself  down  to  con- 
quer fresh  fields  in  the  mathematical  world. 

In  the  course  of  time  the  children  began  the  study 
of  Peter  Parley's  Geography.  The  book  was  small 
and  square,  and  it  had  a  number  of  pictures  in  it  to  give 
the  child  an  idea  of  some  of  the  strange  peoples  and 
curious  animals  that  are  to  be  found  on  the  earth.  For 
instance,  there  was  a  picture  of  a  Chinaman  with  which 
the  young  student  was  sure  to  be  impressed.  His  eyes 
were  slanting,  his  hair  was  braided  in  a  ''pigtail"  that 
hung  down  his  back,  he  had  a  conical  hat  on  his  head 
and  funny  shoes  on  his  feet.  Across  his  shoulders  he 
bore  a  wooden  yoke,  from  the  ends  of  which  were  sus- 
pended by  their  tails  long  strings  of  rats.  How  could 
the  Chinese  eat  such  things?  What  a  strange  people 
they  were !  Among  the  small  separate  pictures  of  ani- 
mals was  one  of  the  hippopotamus  —  oh !  so  large  and 
ugly !  —  and  one  of  the  rhinoceros  with  a  dreadful  horn 
right  on  his  nose.  It  is  no  wonder  if  the  little  girls  shud- 
dered when  they  looked  at  these  pictures. 

Peter  Parley  in  his  text  by  no  means  confined  him- 
self to  the  technicalities  of  the  subject.  He  tried  to 
be  entertaining  and  informal,  and,  what  would  scarcely 
be    expected    in    a    geography,   he    availed  himself  "of 


A  present 


The  Schools  between  1830  and  i860    57 

occasional  opportunities  to  inculcate  lessons  of  morality 
and  religion  upon  the  youthful  heart/'  But  the  por- 
tion of  the  text  that  sank  deepest  into  the  memories 
of  those  who  studied  the  book  was  a  poem  in  the  early 
pages  which  began  thus :  — 

"  The  world  is  round,  and  like  a  ball 
Seems  swinging  in  the  air, 
A  sky  extends  around  it  all. 
And  stars  are  shining  there. 
Water  and  land  upon  the  face 
Of  this  round  world  we  see, 
The  land  is  man's  safe  dwelling-place, 
But  ships  sail  on  the  sea." 

The  more  advanced  pupils  studied  Murray's  Grammar, 
and  found  out  what  nouns,  verbs,  etc.,  were,  and  learned 
to  parse  blank  verse.  Then  there  was  Peter  Parley's 
History,  in  two  volumes.  Volume  I  dealt  with  the  New 
World,  and  Volume  II  began  with  Adam  and  the  Gar- 
den of  Eden,  and  told  the  story  of  the  Old  World.  Only 
the  first  book  was  usually  studied  in  the  district  school. 

Another  little  book  to  bs  mentioned  was  Watts  on 
the  Improvement  of  the  Mind.  This  was  a  deep  and 
serious  essay  on  the  methods  and  the  desirability  of 
mental  improvement.  It  was  studied  by  only  the  oldest 
scholars,  and  even  they  found  much  of  it  beyondTTHerr 
comprehension. 


58 


The  Country  School 


At  one  time  the  more  advanced  pupils  took  up  botany. 
The  teacher's  desk  had  a  vase  on  it,  and  during  the 
blossom  season  the  botany  class  kept  the  vase  well 
filled  with  wild  flowers. 

The  times  were  sufficiently  advanced  so  that  the  chil- 
dren now  had  "boughten  writing  books"  instead  of 
home-made  ones,  steel  pens  instead  of  quills,  and  in  a 
meagre  way  pencils  instead  of  plummets.  The  writ- 
ing books  were  square  in  shape,  ruled  inside,  but  had 


After  school 

no  printed  copies  at  the  top  of  the  page.  These  the 
master  had  therefore  to  set.  He  was  supposed  to  do 
this  each  night  after  school,  but  if  he  forgot  it,  he  had 


The  Schools  between  1830  and  i860    59 

to  set  the  copies  when  the  writing  hour  came.  Some 
pupils  wrote  faster  than  others,  and  the  smart  one  who 
filled  out  his  page  and  still  had  more  time  at  once  desired 
to  inform  the  teacher  of  his  progress  and  to  get  a  new 
copy.  The  boy  raised  his  hand,  therefore,  half  rose 
in  his  seat,  and  nearly  wrung  his  arm  off  in  a  frantic 
effort  to  get  the  teacher's  immediate  attention.  Some 
boys  would  even  snap  their  fingers  and  clear  their  throats 
in  the  very  hoarsest  and  most  asthmatic  manner  of  which 
they  were  capable.  These  violent  methods  of  attracting 
the  teacher's  attention  were,  of  course,  not  confined 
to  the  writing  lesson. 

A  common  requirement  among  teachers  was  that  each 
child  should  recite  a  verse  of  Scripture  at  the  close  of  the 
afternoon  session.  Hence,  when  four  o'clock  approached, 
Bibles  were  drawn  forth,  and  a  diligent  search  began  for 
short  verses,  and  a  hasty  attempt  made  to  fix  the  one  singled 
out  in  the  mind.  There  was  little  solemnity  about  this 
exercise ;  rather,  it  was  farcical  and  humorous. 

''  John,  your  verse,"  says  the  teacher. 

Up  pops  the  boy  like  a  Jack-in-the-box,  snaps  out, 
"Jesus  wept,"  and  with  a  grin  drops  into  his  seat. 

"Pray  without  ceasing,"  "Rejoice  evermore,"  "The 
Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying,"  are  examples  of  the 
verses  which  found  favor  in  the  children's  minds.  They 
had  the  merit  of  shortness,  if  no  other.     The  boy  was 


6o  The  Country  School 

always  serious  when  he  rose,  always  rattled  off  the  words 
very  fast,  and  beamed  with  a  never  failing  smile  at  the 
close  of  his  performance. 

On  one  occasion  a  boy's  verse  ran,  "With  God  all  things 
are  peculiar." 

"What?"  said  the  teacher,  "what  was  that?" 

The  boy  repeated  his  words.  The  teacher  doubted 
their  authenticity,  and  the  boy,  on  the  following  Sunday, 
went  to  his  original  source,  which  was  a  motto  hung 
in  the  Sunday-school  room  at  church,  and  found  that 
the  lettering  in  old  English  text  had  confused  him.  What 
it  really  said  was,  "With  God  all  things  are  possible." 

In  the  middle  of  each  school  session  came  recess. 
First  the  girls  went  out  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  and 
when  they  were  called  in,  the  boys  went  out  for  the  same 
length  of  time.  Railroads  were  beginning  to  be  built, 
but  through  the  village  of  which  I  write,  the  old  stages 
still  ran.  When  the  clatter  and  rumble  denoting  the 
approach  of  one  of  these  vehicles  was  heard  during  school 
hours,  the  eyes  of  the  children  were  sure  to  turn  toward 
the  windows  in  the  hope  of  catching  a  fleeting  gUmpse 
of  the  big  coach  as  it  dashed  past.  To  be  out  at  recess 
when  one  went  by  was  a  great  treat.  Yet  the  children 
were  a  little  afraid  of  it  —  the  coach  was  so  large,  and, 
drawn  by  its  four  horses,  it  thundered  past  so  swiftly. 
It  was  an  impressive  sight,  and  to  the  child  the  passengers 


Ready  for  school 


The  Schools  between  1830  and  i860    61 

seemed  superior  beings,  and  the  whole  thing  a  vivid 
representation  of  power  and  of  the  mystery  and  vastness 
of  the  outside  world. 

There  had  been  various  changes  in  dress  since  the  be- 
ginning of  the  century.  Homespun  had  almost  disap- 
peared. Not  many  families  could  afford  to  buy  "store 
clothes"  for  their  boys,  but  cloth  was  purchased  ready 
woven,  and  was  cut  and  made  at  home  into  the  required 
garments.  Economy  was  studied  in  making  up  clothing, 
and  the  mother  was  careful  to  cut  the  suit  for  the  grow- 
ing boy  several  sizes  larger  than  his  present  stature  de- 
manded. The  boy  had  reason  to  complain  at  first  of 
the  bagginess  of  his  garments,  but  before  they  were  worn 
out  he  was  pretty  sure  to  be  disturbed  because  of  their 
general  tightness  and  of  their  scantiness  at  the  extremities. 
But  this  was  the  common  lot  of  boys,  and  they  might  count 
themselves  lucky  if  they  were  clothed  in  new  store  cloth, 
and  not  in  something  made  over  from  the  cast-off  apparel 
of  their  elders. 

The  boys'  caps  were  homemade  too,  sometimes  of 
broadcloth,  sometimes  of  catskin  or  muskrat  skin.  Often 
a  leather  visor  was  fastened  on  in  front.  At  the  sides  were 
earlaps  with  strings  at  the  ends.  When  in  use  the  strings 
were  tied  under  the  chin ;  at  other  times  the  earlaps  were 
turned  up  at  the  side  of  the  cap,  and  the  strings  tied  over 
the  top. 


62  The  Country  School 

Both  boys  and  girls  went  to  school  barefoot  in  summer, 
but  for  special  occasions  had  shoes.  On  the  approach  of 
cold  weather  the  boys  were  sure  to  remind  their  parents 
that  they  needed  a  new  pair  of  boots.  These  were  rough- 
looking  cowhides,  into  the  tops  of  which  the  boys  usually 
tucked  their  "pant  legs."  At  parties  and  such  other  places 
as  the  tucked-in  style  would  seem  out  of  place,  the  pants 
were  drawn  down  on  the  outside  of  the  bootlegs,  where 
they  developed  an  irritating  and  uncontrollable  tendency 
to  hitch  themselves  upward.  The  boots  were  hardly 
wearable  unless  they  were  kept  well  greased,  and  even  then 
the  continual  slopping  around  in  snow  and  water  made 
a  series  of  hard  wrinkles  gather  at  the  ankles.  The  wrin- 
kles were  particularly  unyielding  on  cold  mornings.  There 
was  no  right  and  left  nonsense  about  these  broad-soled, 
square-toed  boots,  and  the  careful  boy  took  pains  to  change 
them  to  opposite  feet  with  regularity.  He  considered  that 
to  be  the  only  way  to  keep  them  subdued  and  symmetrical. 

The  girls'  dresses  were  of  gingham  in  summer  and  of 
a  fine-checked  woollen  in  winter.  They  were  very  plain 
and  simple  in  pattern,  and  were  fastened  down  the  back 
with  hooks  and  eyes.  The  dresses  were  longer  than  are 
now  in  use,  and  with  them  were  worn  some  curious 
garments  known  as  '^ pantalets."  A  pantalet  was  hke  a 
straight  sleeve,  fastened  just  below  the  knee  and  extend- 
ing downward  to  the  ankles.     It  was  necessary  to  tie 


The  Schools  between   1830  and   i860         63 

them  quite  tightly  to  keep  them  from  slipping  and  they 
were  always  something  of  a  trial  on  account  of  their  ten- 
dency not  to  stay  put.  They  might  be  either  white  or 
colored.  White  stockings  were  customary.  For  a  little  girl 
to  wear  black  stockings  would  have  been  thought  shock- 
ingly inappropriate.  In  warm  weather  the  girls  all  wore 
gingham  or  cahco  sunbonnets;   in  winter  quilted  hoods, 


A 


Qui  at  little  recess 


which  were  very  comfortable  and  often  were  bright  in  color 
and  gay  with  ribbons.  They  had  long  plaided  coats  that 
almost  swept  the  ground  and  that  had  a  wide  cape.  About 
their  necks  they  wore  knitted  tippets. 

The  boys  had  overcoats,  but  they  thought  them  effemi- 


64  The  Country  School 

nate,  and  only  put  them  on  in  the  severest  weather.  Their 
chief  protection  from  the  cold  in  the  way  of  an  extra  wrap 
was  a  striped  knitted  scarf  which  they  called  a  ''com- 
forter. ' '  If  the  schoolroom  was  chilly,  they  might  keep  their 
comforters  wound  around  their  necks  all  through  the  school 
session.  Every  child  had  a  pair  of  mittens.  White  was 
the  orthodox  color  for  the  girls'  mittens,  and  red  and 
blue  in  stripes  for  the  boys'.  The  shoes  worn  by  the 
girls  came  barely  up  to  their  ankles  and  were  slight  pro- 
tection when  there  was  snow  on  the  ground.  Their 
feet  were  "sopping"  in  winter  a  good  share  of  the  time. 
Through  the  summer  term  the  girls  wore  gingham  aprons, 
or,  in  the  case  of  one  or  two  families  esteemed  "rich," 
black  silk  ones. 

Among  the  most  vivid  recollections  that  grown-up 
people  have  of  their  school  days  are  the  memories  of  the 
punishments  inflicted.  What  then  stirred  them  to  fear 
and  trembling  and  anger  now  lies  far  off,  mellowed  by 
the  haze  of  passing  years,  and  though  the  echoes  of  the 
old  feehngs  are  many  times  awakened,  the  punishments 
are,  in  the  main,  like  episodes  in  story-land,  which  we  think 
of  as  onlookers,  not  as  actors.  The  crude  roughness 
and  the  startling  effects  produced  have  lost  their  old- 
time  tragedy,  and  often  have  turned  humorous. 

"Spare  the  rod  and  spoil  the  child"  was  a  Bible  text 
which  received  the  most  literal  acceptance  both  in  theory 


The  Schools  between   1830  and   i860         65 

and  practice.  Teachers  with  tact  to  govern  well  with- 
out resort  to  force  were  rare,  and  it  was  the  common 
habit  to  thrash  the  school  into  shape  by  main  strength. 
Indeed,  the  ability  to  do  this  was  considered  by  all  the 
.elders  of  that  day  of  prime  importance.  Even  the  nat- 
urally mild-tempered  man  was  an  ''old-fashioned" 
disciplinarian  when  it  came  to  teaching,  and  the  naturally 
rude  and  coarse-grained  man  was  as  frightful  as  any  ogre 
in  a  fairy  tale. 

In  summer,  unless  the  teacher  was  an  uncommonly 
poor  one,  or  some  of  the  scholars  uncommonly  wild  and 
mischievous,  the  days  moved  along  very  harmoniously 
and  pleasantly.  In  winter,  however,  when  the  big  boys 
came  in,  some  of  them  men  grown,  who  cared  vastly 
more  about  having  a  good  time  than  getting  learning, 
an  important  requisite  of  the  master  was  "government." 
He  ruled  his  little  empire,  not  with  a  rod  of  iron,  but  with 
a  stout  three-foot  ruler,  known  as  a  ''ferule,"  which  was 
quite  as  effective. 

Some  of  the  big  boys  who  were  there  "just  to  raise  the 
mischief,"  would  perhaps  dare  the  master  to  go  outside 
and  fight.  Of  course  he  wouldn't  do  that,  but  at  times 
he  had  quite  serious  scuffles  with  rebellious  pupils  right  in 
the  schoolroom.  The  boys,  on  their  part,  would  fight  Hke 
tigers  and  make  the  master's  nose  bleed  and  tear  his 
clothes. 


66  The  Country  School 

The  really  severe  teacher  had  no  hesitation  in  throwing 
his  ferule  at  any  child  he  saw  misbehaving,  and  it  is  to 
be  noted  that  he  threw  first  and  spoke  afterward.  Very 
likely  he  would  order  the  culprit  to  bring  him  the  ferule 
he  had  cast  at  him,  and  when  the  boy  came  out  on  the 
floor  would  further  punish  him.  Punishment  by  spatting 
the  palm  of  the  hand  with  a  ruler  was  known  as  "feruhng." 
The  smarting  of  the  blows  was  severe  while  the  punish- 
ment lasted,  but  this  was  as  nothing  to  a  ''thrashing." 
The  boy  to  be  thrashed  was  himself  sent  out  to  cut  the 
apple-tree  twigs  with  which  he  was  to  be  whipped.  Poor 
fellow !  Whimpering,  and  blinded  by  the  welling  tears, 
he  slowly  whittles  off  one  after  another  of  the  tough 
twigs.  This  task  done,  he  drags  his  unwilhng  feet  back 
to  the  schoolroom. 

''Take  off  your  coat,  sir!"  says  the  master. 

The  school  is  hushed  into  terrified  silence.  The  fire 
crackles  in  the  wide  fireplace,  the  wind  whistles  at  the 
eaves.  The  boy's  tears  flow  faster,  and  he  stammers  a 
plea  for  mercy.  Then  the  whip  hisses  through  the  air, 
and  blows  fall  thick  and  fast.  The  boy  dances  about 
the  floor,  and  his  shrill  screams  fill  the  schoolroom.  His 
mates  are  frightened  and  trembling,  and  the  girls  are  cry- 
ing. When  the  sobbing  boy  is  sent  to  his  place,  whatever 
his  misdemeanor  may  have  been,  the  severity  of  the  pun- 
ishment has  won  him  the  sympathy  of  the  whole  school. 


The  Schools  between   1830  and   i860         67 

and  toward  the  master  there  are  only  feehngs  of  fear  and 
hate.  As  for  the  culprit,  he  in  his  heart  vows  vengeance, 
and  longs  for  the  day  when  he  shall  have  the  age  and 
stature  to  thrash  the  teacher  in  return.  Occasionally  a 
lad  sent  after  switches  made  use  of  his  liberty  to  slip  off 
home,  but  he  had  to  "catch  it"  when  he  came  to  school 
the  next  day. 

As  one  of  the  old-time  pupils  expresses  it,  "The  men 
teachers  were  often  regular  rough-cuts."  One  master 
of  this  class,  when  he  noticed  a  boy  misbehaving,  had  a 
habit  of  rushing  at  the  culprit,  catching  him  by  the  collar, 
and  dashing  him  over  the  desks  out  to  open  floor  space, 


Loitering  on  the  way  home  from  school 


68  The  Country  School 

where  he  would  administer  a  thrashing.  The  children 
thought  he  acted  as  if  he  was  going  to  kill  the  boy. 

The  most  troublesome  boys  were  not  by  any  means 
always  ill-natured.  Often  they  were  merely  mischievous. 
The  trouble  might  be  due  to  an  active  mind  and  lack  of 
employment.  A  boy  who  learned  his  lessons  easily  would 
have  a  lot  of  time  on  his  hands.  He  couldn't  keep  still, 
and  presently  the  teacher  would  catch  him  doing  some- 
thing that  he  ought  not  to  do.  Then  he  got  a  whipping. 
Very  likely  he  might  be  a  cordy  little  rascal,  afraid  of 
nothing,  and  about  as  disagreeable  to  tackle  as  a  healthy 
hornet.  The  encounter  was  no  fun  for  the  teacher; 
and  the  boy,  if  he  was  punished  frequently  and  severely, 
planned  to  lick  that  teacher  when  he  grew  up.  But  I 
never  have  heard  of  a  boy  who  took  this  delayed  vengeance. 

Doubtless  the  whippings  of  the  period  varied  much  in 
severity,  and,  unless  the  master  was  altogether  brutal 
or  angered,  the  blows  were  tempered  according  to  the  size 
of  the  boy  and  the  enormity  of  his  offence.  Nor  were  the 
boy's  cries  always  a  criterion  of  the  amount  of  the  hurt. 
It  was  manifestly  for  his  interest  to  appear  in  such  ter- 
rible distress  as  to  rouse  the  master's  pity,  and  with  this 
in  mind  he  to  some  extent  gauged  his  cries.  Neverthe- 
less, the  spectacle  was  not  an  edifying  one,  and  happily 
the  school  thrashing  as  a  method  of  separating  the  chaff 
from  the  wheat  in  boy  nature  is  a  thing  of  the  past. 


The  Schools  between  1830  and  i860    69 

The  list  of  milder  punishments  was  a  varied  one.     If 
the  master  saw  two  boys  whispering,  he  would,  if  circum- 


1 

.. 

"^HH^^^^^^^H 

-^^^^^^^H 

._ 

Jh^^^^l 

^w^^^^^H 

J_ 

X 

!^ 

^ 

mH^^^^H 

1 

i 

A  punishment 

stances  favored,  steal  up  to  them  from  behind  and  visit 
unexpected  retribution  on  the  guilty  lads  by  catching 
them  by  the  collars  and  cracking  their  heads  together. 
Frequently  an  offender  was  ordered  out  on  the  floor  to 
stand  for  a  time  by  the  master's  desk,  or  he  was  sent  to 
a  corner  with  his  face  to  the  wall,  or  was  asked  to  stand 
on  one  leg  for  a  time,  or  he  was  assigned  a  passage  of 
Scripture  and  told  to  stay  after  school  until  he  had  learned 
and  recited  it  correctly  to  the  teacher.  In  certain  cases 
he  was  made  to  hold  one  arm  out  at  right  angles  to  his 


70  The  Country  School 

body  —  a  very  easy  and  simple  thing  to  do  for  a  short 
time,  but  fraught  with  painful  discomfort  if  long  continued. 
Sometimes  this  punishment  was  made  doubly  hard  by 
forcing  the  scholar  to  support  a  book  or  other  weight 
at  the  same  time.  When  the  arm  began  to  sag,  the  teacher 
would  inquire  with  feigned  solicitude  what  the  trouble 
was,  and  perhaps  would  give  the  boy  a  rap  on  his  "crazy 
bone"  with  the  ruler  to  encourage  him  to  persevere. 
This  process  soon  brought  a  child  to  tears,  and  then  the 
teacher  was  apt  to  relent  and  send  him  to  his  seat. 

Making  a  girl  sit  with  the  boys,  or  a  boy  with  the  girls, 
was  another  punishment.  The  severity  of  this  depended 
on  the  nature  of  the  one  punished.  For  the  timid  and 
bashful  it  was  a  terrible  disgrace. 

Some  of  the  punishments  produced  very  striking  spec- 
tacular effects,  to  which  the  present-day  mind  would  feel 
quite  averse.  Fancy  the  sight  of  a  boy  and  girl  guilty  of 
some  misdemeanor  standing  in  the  teacher's  heavy  arm- 
chair, the  girl  wearing  the  boy's  hat  and  the  boy  adorned 
with  the  girl's  sunbonnet.  Both  are  red-faced  and  tearful 
with  mortified  pride.  They  preserve  with  difficulty  a 
precarious  balance  on  their  narrow  footing,  and  every 
movement  of  one  causes  the  other  to  gasp  and  to  clutch 
hastily  to  prevent  inglorious  downfall. 

To  sit  on  the  end  of  a  ruler,  which  the  teacher  presently 
knocked  from  under  the  boy,  was  considered  by  some 


■I 


,  OF  THE    ^ 

OF 


The  Schools  between   1830  and   i860         71 

pedagogs  an  effective  punishment.  One  master  used  to 
have  the  offending  youngster  bend  over  with  his  head  under 
the  table.  Then  the  teacher  whacked  the  culprit  from 
behind  with  his  heavy  ruler,  and  sent  him  shooting  under 
the  table  and  sprawling  across  the  floor.  Another  school- 
master kept  in  the  entry  an  old  satchel  which  he  would 
bring  in  on  occasion,  throw  it  on  the  floor,  and  order  the 
offender  to  lie  down  with  that  for  a  pillow.  Among  the 
most  ingenious  and  uncomfortable  in  the  varied  list  of 
punishments  was  the  fitting  a  cut  from  a  green  twig,  par- 
tially split,  to  the  offender's  nose.  In  cases  of  lying,  this 
rude  pair  of  pinchers  was  attached  to  the  scholar's  tongue. 

As  an  example  of  the  brutal  extreme  to  which  some 
masters  went,  I  cite  the  case  of  a  teacher  who  threatened 
on  occasion  to  cut  off  the  children's  ears.  Imagine  the 
whole  school  listening  with  breathless  and  open-eyed 
horror  while  the  master,  sitting  in  his  chair  with  a  little 
girl  standing  before  him,  is  explaining  the  process  of 
ear-cutting,  and  at  the  same  time  whetting  his  knife  on 
his  stout  boot.  He  would  go  so  far  as  to  rise  and  rub  the 
back  of  the  blade  along  the  child's  ears.  The  scholars 
soon  saw  he  was  not  to  be  beheved,  but  the  threat  was 
too  frightful  to  altogether  lose  its  dread,  however  often 
repeated. 

The  women  teachers  were  often  as  vigorous  discipli- 
narians as  the  men,  and  capable  of  originating  methods 


72  The   Country  School 

of  their  own  that  were  truly  distressing.  For  instance, 
one  teacher  would  have  the  smaller  offenders  put  out  their 
tongues,  which  she  would  proceed  to  snap  with  a  bit  of 
whalebone.  Oh,  how  that  hurt !  This  punishment 
seemed  to  them  the  meanest  that  could  be  invented. 

Boxing  ears,  keeping  in  at  recess  or  after  school,  and 
the  confiscation  of  playthings  which  hindered  the  youth- 
ful mind  in  its  pursuit  of  knowledge  were  mild  visitations 
of  the  law  that  only  need  mention.  Jack-knives  frequently 
figured  among  the  contraband  articles  locked  in  the  teach- 
er's desk;  for  what  boy  can  behold  a  piece  of  soft  pine 
wood  in  any  sha.pe  whatever  without  desiring  to  whittle 
it?  The  desks  offered  an  inviting  surface  on  which  the 
boy  itched  to  carve  his  initials,  and  that  done,  he  was 
inspired  to  put  a  few  added  touches  and  simple  designs 
on  the  rest  of  the  space  within  reach.  If  the  beloved 
jack-knife  was  captured  by  the  teacher  and  held  in  du- 
rance, the  boy  still  had  recourse  to  his  pencils,  and  with 
these  could  make  in  the  soft  wood  various  indentations 
and  markings  pleasing  to  his  soul. 

In  describing  the  schoolroom  interior,  only  one  chair 
was  mentioned;  but  there  was  another  which  had  long 
since  seen  its  best  days  and  was  now  minus  its  back.  On 
it  the  boy  who  did  not  learn  his  lessons  was  sometimes 
required  to  sit  with  a  fool's  cap  on  his  head.  This  treat- 
ment was  expected  not  only  to  shame  the  boy,  but  to  serve 


The  Schools  between   1830  and   i860         73 

as  a  warning  example  to  the  school.  His  cap  was  usually 
improvised  by  the  teacher  out  of  a  sheet  of  white  paper 
or  even  a  newspaper.  Some  teachers,  however,  had  a 
fool's  cap  ready  made.  One  such  cap  that  was  particularly 
elaborate  had  a  tassel  on  top  and  tassels  at  each  of  the  three 
corners  below,  and  on  its  front  was  painted  the  word 
'^  DUNCE"  in  large  capitals. 

The  games  of  the  children  were  much  the  same  as  those 
of  earlier  days.  In  winter  there  was  a  good  deal  of  rough 
skirmishing  among  the  boys,  snowballing  and  ducking 
each  other  when  chance  offered.  The  small  children  at 
times  fared  hardly,  and  once  in  a  while  a  girl  had  a  severe 
experience  when  her  mates  took  a  notion  to  wrap  her  in 
her  long  cloak  and  bury  her  in  a  snowdrift.  As  soon  as 
the  burying  was  accomplished,  the  buryers  would  run 
away,  and  the  buried  would  struggle  out  half  suffocated 
and  bedraggled  with  snow  from  head  to  foot.  *'Snap- 
the-whip"  was  a  popular  game  when  the  snow  was  deep. 
The  children,  except  the  one  most  concerned,  thought 
it  great  fun,  and  shouted  in  glee  every  time  the  whip 
snapped  and  the  little  end  boy  or  girl  broke  loose  to  spin 
head  over  heels  into  a  drift. 

On  stormy  winter  days,  when  the  children  all  brought 
their  dinners  and  the  teacher  was  not  there,  the  excited 
racing  and  tearing  around  that  was  done  in  the  little  room 
at  noon  gave  a  vivid  though  unconscious  representation 


74  The  Country  School 

of  Babel  and  Bedlam.  At  the  same  time  there  was  a 
good  deal  of  running  in  and  out,  and  the  floor  by 
schooltime  was  mottled  all  over  with  snow  and  water. 

SHding  was  in  order  when  there  was  a  crust  on  the 
snow.  The  sleds  were  great  home-made  affairs  that  three 
or  four  could  sit  on  if  need  be.  Sleds  were  usually  shod 
with  hard-wood  runners,  but  some  boys  went  to  the 
blacksmith's  and  had  their  sleds  fitted  with  runners  of 
iron.  The  boy  owner  of  a  sled  was  expected,  on  the  down- 
hill trips,  to  sit  behind  and  steer.  With  his  square-toed 
boot  grating  along  behind  he  could  make  the  sled  go  just 
where  he  pleased.  In  good  sliding  weather  boot-toes 
disappeared  wonderfully  fast,  and  he  was  a  lucky  fellow 
whose  footwear  did  not  begin  to  gape  at  the  extremities 
before  spring.  Presently  some  genius  invented  a  copper- 
toed  boot,  which  no  doubt  "filled  a  long-felt  want,"  for 
the  inventor  realized  a  fortune  by  it. 

Children  who  could  not  afford  a  sled  would  make  some- 
thing that  served  instead  out  of  barrel  staves.  Three 
or  four  staves  laid  close  together  did  for  the  bottom,  and 
as  many  more  bowed  over  above  did  for  the  top.  The 
ends  of  the  staves  where  they  met  were  nailed  together, 
and  the  staves  were  also  nailed  to  a  brace  run  through 
the  middle  of  the  contrivance. 

Favorite  summer  games  were  tag,  drop- the- hand  ker- 
chief, puss-in-the-comer,  and,  most  popular  of  any,  there 


The  Schools  between   1830  and   i860         75 


Playing  drop  the  handkerchief 


was  hide-and-coop,  which  was  also  called  hi-spy.  In  play- 
ing this,  the  children  who  hid  always  shouted  "Co-o-op  !" 
as  soon  as  they  had  concealed  themselves ;  and  each  time 
the  one  who  was  ''it"  caught  sight  of  any  of  the  hiders, 
he  ran  and  touched  the  goal  and  hollered,  "Hi-spy  Jim !" 
or  Jane,  or  whatever  the  one's  name  might  be. 

He  should  have  said,  ''I  spy,"  but  that  was  contrary 
to  the  established  custom.  The  girls  jumped  rope  a  good 
deal.     They  would  jump  to  and  from  school,  and  at  recess 


76  The  Country  School 

would  try  to  see  who  could  jump  the  most  without  missing. 
In  fact,  they  jumped  until  they  were  exhausted. 

The  surroundings  of  the  schoolhouse  were  half  wild 
and  contained  many  delightful  possibilities  for  pleasure. 
A  little  way  down  the  road  was  a  large  tree,  under  which 
in  summer  the  children  played  cubbyhouse.  Near  by  was 
a  good-sized  brook  bordered  by  brushy  woods,  and  in 
the  thickets  the  little  folks  gathered  patches  of  green  moss, 
with  which  they  would  cover  a  square  of  earth  under  the 
tree;  and  that  was  the  foundation  of  the  cubbyhouse. 
They  brought  from  home  broken  pieces  of  dishes,  bits  of 
carpet,  and  other  odds  and  ends  for  furniture  and  house- 
ware. Acorn  cups  did  for  tea-cups,  and  the  children 
made  fancy  little  pails  out  of  brown  oak  balls  by  cutting 
off  a  portion,  hollowing  out  the  rest,  and  fixing  in  a  slender 
leaf  stem  for  a  handle.  With  some  short  pieces  of  board 
they  contrived  shelves  for  the  dishes.  In  connection  with 
the  cubbyhouses  they  made  some  small  inclosures  and 
caught  toads  and  put  them  in  these  pens.  They  called 
the  toads  their  pigs.  The  older  scholars  played  they  were 
parents  and  had  the  smaller  ones  for  their  children,  though 
to  some  extent  they  brought  their  dolls  to  serve  in  this 
capacity. 

Most  of  the  children  came  so  far  they  had  to  take  their 
dinners.  In  pleasant,  warm  weather  they  ate  at  the  cubby- 
houses.     They  carried  their  food  in  tin  pails,  and  often 


The  Schools  between   1830  and   i860         ']^ 

entertained  themselves  by  swapping  portions  with  each 
other. 

Of  all  the  playtime  resorts  the  favorite  was  the  brook, 
just  across  the  road  from  the  schoolhouse.  In  winter 
they  scampered  over  to  it  at  recess  and  got  bits  of  ice 
which  they  would  smuggle  into  the  schoolroom  and  se- 
crete and  nibble  at  on  the  sly.  In  summer  they  waded 
and  splashed  in  the  shallows  of  the  stream  and  caught 
pollywogs  and  minnows  with  their  bare  hands. 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  use  they  ever  made  of  the 
stream  was  to  play  at  baptizing  in  it.  The  chief  church 
of  the  town  was  of  the  Baptist  denomination,  and  it  was 
the  custom  to  baptize  converts  in  some  convenient  stream. 
When  a  ceremony  was  to  take  place,  the  minister  and  con- 
vert, both  in  black  robes,  walked  down  into  the  stream, 
while  the  rest  of  the  congregation  clustered  on  the  shore, 
singing :  — 

"  On  Jordan's  stormy  bank  I  stand 
And  cast  a  wistful  eye 
To  Canaan's  fair  and  happy  land, 
Where  my  possessions  lie." 

Then  the  minister  took  hold  of  his  companion  and  said, 
"I  baptize  thee  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  of  the  Son, 
and  of  the  Holy  Ghost." 

With  these  words  he  laid  the  convert  over  backward 
into  the  water.    If  it  was  winter  and  the  stream  was  frozen, 


78 


The  Country  School 


a  passage  was  cut  through  the  ice  from  the  shore  into  deep 
enough  water  to  do  the  baptizing  thoroughly.  To  persons 
unfamihar  with  such  customs  this  may  sound  rude  and 
strange,  but  to  most  in  that  vicinity  the  ceremony  was  as 
impressive  as  it  was  interesting. 

The  children  in  their  play  copied  all  the  details  of  the 
baptism,  very  closely,  except  that  the  girl  who  acted  as 
convert  was  not  immersed  in  the  water,  but  only  dabbled 
a  little. 


In  the  meadow  at  recess 


IV 

LATER  CHARACTERISTICS,  i860  to  1900 

ATYPICAL  country  school  of  this  comparatively 
recent  period  was  that  at  a  small  outlying 
hamlet  which  I  shall  call  Riverbend.  One  of 
its  attendants  was  Charlie  Smithson.  He  began  to  go 
regularly  before  he  had  reached  his  fifth  birthday.  On 
the  first  occasion  that  he  went  to  school  he  was  escorted 
thither  by  an  older  brother. 

The  little  brick  schoolhouse  was  only  a  five-minutes* 
walk  from  their  home,  if  they  went  straight  there  without 
loitering.  This  morning  they  were  early  enough  to  play 
for  a  while  with  the  other  children  in  the  schoolyard.  But 
presently  the  bell  rang.  A  tremor  of  alarm  ran  through 
Charlie's  breast.  The  clangor  of  the  bell  filled  him  with 
fear,  and  the  open  schoolhouse  door  looked  ominous.  He 
turned  away  and  began  to  kick  up  the  dust  in  all  haste  on 
his  way  toward  home.  His  older  brother  was  shocked  at 
this  disregard  of  the  necessity  of  getting  an  education.  He 
promptly  gave  chase,  caught  the  runaway,  and  dragged 
him  back  to  the  schoolhouse. 

Charlie  found  it  not  so  bad  after  all  when  he  was  once 

79 


8o 


The  Country  School 


inside,  and  in  a  few  days  he  was  as  willing  to  attend  as 
any  of  the  other  children.     His  mother  always  brushed  his 


A  schoolboy 

hair  and  slicked  him  up  before  he  started,  and  was  careful 
that  he  should  start  on  time.  He  was  very  confidential 
with  her  when  she  was  getting  him  ready,  especially  if 


Later  Characteristics 


8i 


they  were  alone  together  and  not  too  hurried.  He  even 
told  her,  once,  of  the  bad  words  some  of  the  big  boys  used. 

*' Those  are  not  nice,"  was  her  comment.  "You  won't 
use  them,  will  you?" 

He  looked  up  into  her  face  and  replied  with  an  honest 
*'No." 

The  small  children  were  sent  more  to  relieve  their 
mothers  than  for  study,  and  for  the  first  year  Charlie  had 
not  much  to  do.  He  came  out  on  the  floor  twice  each 
day  to  learn  his  letters  from  some  big  white  cards  that 
had  pictures  on  them;  he  listened  to  the  others,  and 
he  was  allowed  to  play  with  a  fascinating  counting-frame 
made  of  wires  strung  with  blue,  black,  yellow,  and  green 
wooden  beads.     Sometimes  the  teacher  let  him  lie  down 


The  Riverhend  schoolhouse 


82  The  Country  School 

on  the  bench,  with  her  shawl  under  his  head  for  a  pillow, 
and  go  to  sleep;  and  once  he  fell  off  on  the  floor.  The 
shock  made  him  awake  with  a  sudden  start. 

There  were  now  three  terms  in  the  school  year  —  a 
long  winter  term  of  twelve  weeks  ^nd  a  spring^nd  a  fall 
term  of  ten  weeks  eacji.  It  was  so  much  the  custom  for 
the  teacher  to  be  a  woman  that  a  man  teacher  in  a  primary 
school  was  looked  on  as  a  good  deal  of  a  curiosity.  In  all 
the  time  that  Charlie  attended  the  district  school  he  only 
had  one  man  teacher,  and  he  taught  only  one  winter 
term.  Saturday  had  become  a  full  holiday.  "Boarding, 
round"  for  the  teacher  had  long  ago  been  discontinued, 
and  wasnowthought  a  "  strange  custom  of  the  olden  times." 

Teachers,  as  a  rule,  were  picked  from  among  the  young 
women  of  the  home  neighborhood.  They  were  paid 
five  or  six  dollars  a  week.  In  case  a  teacher  came  from 
another  town,  she  boarded  at  a  neighbor's  in  the  school- 
house  vicinity  at  a  weekly  cost  of  two,  two  and  a  half,  or 
possibly  three  dollars.  The  teacher,  for  the  time  being, 
was  adopted  as  one  of  the  family  at  her  boarding-place. 
She  would  probably  keep  her  own  bedroom  in  order  and 
help  with  the  household  work,  at  least  to  the  extent  of  wip- 
ing the  breakfast  and  supper  dishes ;  and  on  such  noons 
as  the  rest  of  the  folks  were  gone,  she  got  dinner  for  the 
hired  man. 

The  schoolhouse  at  Riverbend  was  more  roomy  than 


Later  Characteristics 


83 


1  he  cummunest  type  oj  the  country  schoolhouse 

those  of  most  hamlets.  It  was  also  more  substantially 
built,  for  the  community  that  possessed  a  brick  edifice 
was  exceptional.  Diminutive  wooden  buildings,  painted 
white,  were  the  rule.  Riverbend  schoolhouse  stood  on  a 
low  hill  which  was  hardly  more  than  a  terrace.  The  little 
yard  was  hemmed  in  on  three  sides  by  a  high  and  slivery 
board  fence.  In  front  was  a  white-painted  quarter- 
board  fence  that,  in  its  first  days,  had  a  good  deal  of  style 
about  it ;   but  the  boys  rode  that  off  in  a  very  short  time, 


84 


The  Country  School 


and,  indeed,  it  was  not  long  before  boards,  posts,  and  all 
were  gone.  The  other  fence  was  more  formidable  and 
withstood  the  ravages  of  time  and  the  boys  much  longer. 

But  successive  climbing- 
overs,  whackings,  and  the 
demand  for  see-saw  boards 
made  it  disappear  piece- 
meal, until  there  was  left 
only  one  knotty  cedar 
post,  to  which  the  com- 
mittee-man hitched  his 
horse  when  he  called. 

Among  the  advantages 
of  having  the  school  build- 
ing of  brick  instead  of 
wood  was  the  fact  that 
its  outer  walls  furnished 
an  excellent  surface  to 
sharpen  slate  pencils  on. 
Once  in  a  while  there 
came  a  teacher  to  whose 
Sharpening  his  slate  pencil  aesthetic     eye     the     gray 

blotches  which  decorated  the  bricks  about  the  entrance 
were  not  pleasing.  Word  of  command  was  thereupon 
passed  that  the  scholars  should  do  their  pencil  sharp- 
ening instead  on  the  heavy  stone  step  before  the  door. 


Later  Characteristics  85 

At  a  back  corner  of  the  schoolyard  stood  a  rickety 
httle  building  that  served  for  a  wood  shed.  It  was  un- 
painted  and  battered,  and  had  a  decrepit  tendency  to 
lean  sideways,  and  always  had  a  look  of  great  age. 

The  interior  of  the  schoolhouse  consisted  of  a  long 
entry,  and  beyond  that  the  main  room.  At  the  rear  of 
the  latter  were  sixteen  box  desks.  These  desks  were  long 
enough  to  accommodate  two  pupils,  but  while  Charlie 
Smithson  went  to  school,  the  number  of  scholars  was  never 
so  large  but  that  each  could  have  a  whole  desk  to  himself. 
The  children  left  the  district  school  younger  than  formerly 
to  attend  the  grammar  and  high  schools  at  the  center. 
The  rear  seats  in  the  room,  which  were  monopolized 
by  the  largest  and  oldest  scholars,  were  thought  the  most 
desirable  ones.  There  was  only  a  straight-up  wall  for  a 
back,  and  the  wind  came  in  rather  too  freely  at  the  cracks 
on  cold  days,  but  the  remoteness  from  the  teacher  and 
the  all-encompassing  view  of  the  room  that  the  position 
afforded  were  sufficient  compensations. 

In  the  open  space  in  front  of  the  seats  were  the  teacher's 
desk,  two  chairs,  and  the  box  stove,  which  sent  a  long  reach 
of  rusty  pipe  across  the  room.  On  the  wall  behind  the 
teacher's  desk  was  a  long  blackboard,  and  there  were 
other  blackboards  between  the  north  and  south  windows. 
Beneath  these  last,  against  the  wall,  ran  a  bench,  on  which 
the  little  scholars  stood  when  they  were  at  the  board,  and 


86 


The  Country  School 


which  was  hberally  tattooed  with  imprints  from  the  nails 
in  the  bottoms  of  their  shoes. 


A  class  in  geography 

The  walls  of  the  room  were  adorned  with  a  geometrically 
figured  paper  that  inclined  to  brownness  and  melancholy 
in  its  general  tone.  In  places  it  had  started  to  crack  off, 
and  in  one  or  two  spots  was  stained  by  leaks  from  the  roof. 
The  woodwork  of  the  walls  and  doors  was  painted  yellow 
with  a  graining  to  represent  polished  wood.  The  desks 
and  benches  were  painted  green  —  all  except  the  tops  of 
the  desks,  which  were  white.  These  soft  pine  desk-tops 
offered  facilities  for  hand-carving    and    original   decora- 


Later  Characteristics 


87 


tion,  which  had  inspired  the  pupils  to  do  a  good  deal  of 
work  on  their  once  fair  surface  with  their  jack-knives  and 
pencils.  It  was  on  the  boys'  side  that  the  desks  were 
most  energetically  cut  up,  the  girls'  genius  running  more 
to 'mild  pencilings. 

In  the  middle  of  the  ceiling  was  a  small  square  hole 
with  a  little  door  fitted  to  it,  and  known  as  "the  venti- 
lator." Originally  there  was  a  string  attached  to  it  by 
which  it  could  be  worked  from  below.  However,  strings 
are  by  nature  perishable,  and  presently  that  string  was  no 
more.  After  that  the  boys,  when  they  happened  to  think 
of  it,  would  clamber  up  the  unfinished  wall  in  the  entry 


Going  to  school  with  the  teacher 


SS  The  Country  School 

and  pick  a  precarious  way  along  the  dark  and  still  more 
unfinished  loft  and  open  the  ventilator,  or  shut  it,  as  the 
case  might  be.  At  the  same  time  they  usually  called  down 
a  few  remarks  through  the  hole  to  the  other  scholars  and 
threw  some  bits  of  plastering  at  them.  At  length,  having 
properly  adjusted  the  ventilator  and  thus  insured  the  health 
of  the  school,  the  boys  descended,  and  for  some  time 
afterward  occupied  themselves  in  freeing  their  clothes 
from  the  dust  and  cobwebs  they  had  gathered. 

In  the  way  of  art  the  schoolroom  had  three  or  four  small 
chromos ;  in  the  way  of  inspiration,  a  dark  portrait  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  in  a  still  darker  frame.  In  the  way 
of  helps  there  was  a  somewhat  antiquated  wall  map  of 
the  United  States,  and  on  the  teacher's  desk  a  small  globe. 
The  teacher's  desk  was  quite  modern.  It  was  of  black 
walnut,  and  it  had  a  green  oilcloth  cover  on  its  lid  and  a 
pretty  balustrade  at  the  back.  The  scholars  admired  it 
very  much  when  it  was  first  put  in.  Of  course,  use  and 
age  made  it  totter  on  its  legs,  and  from  time  to  time  it 
was  found  necessary  that  it  should  undergo  a  course 
of  gluings  and  wirings.  These  were  administered  by  a 
village  farmer.  Many  of  the  farmers  numbered  carpen- 
tering among  their  accomplishments,  but  this  particular 
person,  by  reason  of  his  special  attainments,  might  fairly 
be  designated  the  community's  prize  tinkerer.  He  could 
patch  the  roof;  he  could  clean  the  stovepipe.     He  was 


f 


OF  THE 


UNIVERSITY 

OF 


Later  Characteristics  89 

appealed  to  when  the  door  wouldn't  lock,  and  he  was 
appealed  to  when  it  wouldn't  unlock.  When  the  paint 
wore  off  the  blackboard,  he  put  on  fresh.  When  a  window- 
pane  was  broken,  he  got  a  new  one  and  came  down  some 
evening  with  his  putty,  tools,  and  a  lantern  and  put  it  in. 
He  even  took  the  clock  in  hand  when  it  proved  refractory. 
In  short,  if  anything  was  the  matter,  or  the  teacher  at  any 
time  was  inspired  with  a  new  idea  in  the  schoolroom 
economy,  he  was  forthwith  sent  for. 

In  the  corner  of  the  room  next  to  the  stove  was  a  big 
woodbox,  unpainted  and  much  battered,  which,  like  most 
things  in  the  world,  came  to  pieces  oftener  than  seemed 
strictly  necessary.  The  stove,  too,  had  its  failings.  There 
were  days  when  it  smoked,  and  at  times  its  actions  not 
only  puzzled  the  scholars  and  the  teacher,  but  the  village 
carpenter  as  well.  However,  he  would  examine  the  stove 
some  day  after  school,  while  he  improved  the  opportunity, 
at  the  same  time,  to  eat  an  apple.  He  would  see  that  the 
joints  in  the  long  pipe  were  all  right,  and  adjust  the 
wires  by  which  it  was  suspended  from  the  ceiling.  He 
might  even  bring  a  ladder  from  home,  climb  the  school- 
house  roof,  and  look  down  the  chimney.  After  that  the 
stove,  if  it  had  any  conscience  whatever,  probably  behaved 
better. 

One  of  the  boys  among  the  pupils  held  the  office  of 
fire-tender  and  floor- sweeper  right  through  the  term.     He 


90 


The  Country  School 


came  early  mornings  to  start  the  fire  and  have  the  room 
well  warmed  by  schooltime,  and  once  or  twice  a  week 
he  swept  the  floor.  For  this  work  he  received  one  dollar 
at  the  end  of  the  term,  or  possibly  two  dollars  for  a  winter 
term.     Not  every  boy  had  the  genius  to  make  the  fire  go 


Starting  the  fire 

well,  for  the  ashes  had  to  be  poked  just  about  right  to 
ipake  the  draft  good,  and  the  stove  door  was  broken  in 
two  pieces,  and  it  required  care  to  adjust  it  so  it  would  in 
effect  be  whole  and  stay  whole.  Those  hard- wood  fires 
could  be  made  tremendously  hot  on  occasion.  Once  a 
certain  boy  who  was  suffering  for  amusement  loaded  the 


^^!!SB^^:i=.^*-^  Later  Characteristics  91 

stove  as  full  of  wood  as  it  would  hold  just  before  school- 
time,  that  he  might  have  the  joy  of  witnessing  the  teacher's 
consternation  when  she  came  in  and  school  began.  Yes, 
the  teacher  observed  the  heat  and  the  baked  condition 
of  the  air,  and  sought  out  the  boy  who  was  answerable  for 
the  crime.  She  told  him  that,  as  he  had  such  a  liking  for 
heat,  perhaps  he  would  be  glad  to  stand  by  the  stove  and 
enjoy  it.  This  suggestion  was  not  one  that  filled  him  with 
delight,  but  the  teacher  would  accept  no  excuse;  and  he 
was  soon  perspiring  and  repenting  at  the  side  of  the  stove. 
But  he  was  a  gritty  fellow,  and  when,  just  before  recess, 
the  teacher  asked  how  he  liked  it,  he  said,  ''First  rate." 

"Oh,  well,"  was  the  teacher's  response,  "if  you  enjoy 
it  so  very  much,  you  may  spend  your  recess,  too,  by  the 
stove." 

Then  the  boy  saw  the  unwisdom  of  his  reply.  •  However, 
the  sentence  was  passed,  and  there  was  no  help  for  it. 
That  particular  boy  made  no  more  hot  fires. 

Occasionally,  one  of  the  older  lads  would  bring  a  little 
red  pepper  or  brimstone  and  sprinkle  it  on  the  stove  and 
by  these  means  make  the  teacher  and  the  pupils  sneeze. 
The  boys  liked  also  to  put  snowballs  on  the  stove  to  see 
them  sizzle.  This  contributed  to  their  happiness,  perhaps, 
but  it  was  not  good  for  the  stove,  which  as  a  result  was 
badly  cracked. 

On  the  bench  by  the  woodbox  was  set  the  water  pail. 


92  The  Country  School 

Beside  it  was  the  drinking  utensil,  sometimes  a  tin  cup, 
sometimes  a  glass  tumbler,  and  at  one  time  a  little  cus- 
tard cup.  It  was  astonishing  how  many  times  a  scholar 
could  drink  that  custard  cup  full  when  he  made  the  at- 
tempt. The  small  boy  in  the  front  seat  would  drink  as 
much  as  he  could  hold,  and  then  turn  around  and  watch 
the  progress  of  the  water  pail  to  observe  if  any  one  could 
exceed  him.  If  the  pail-bearer  had  a  grudge  against  any 
particular  one,  or  was  humorously  inclined,  he  might 
snatch  the  cup  away  before  the  drinker  had  taken  more 
than  a  mouthful  or  two,  or  would  give  the  cup  a  gentle 
but  sudden  tilt  that  inundated  the  drinker  in  a  small 
way.  The  office  of  water-passer  seemed  to  be  quite 
desirable,  and  "May  I  pass  the  water?"  was  a  question 
which  required  frequent  answer  from  the  teacher. 

The  water  was  brought  from  the  nearest  neighbor's. 
A  big  boy  could  get  it  alone,  but  usually  two  went  to  carry 
the  pail.  In  the  interregnums  between  the  wearing  out 
of  one  pail  and  the  getting  a  new  one,  the  scholars  all  raced 
over  to  "Uncle  Elijah's"  each  recess  to  refresh  themselves 
at  the  tub  of  running  spring  water  which  stood  at  his  back 
door. 

The  clock  has  been  mentioned.  That  was  a  recent 
innovation.  For  many  years  after  the  reign  of  the  hour- 
glass and  sundial  the  teachers  had  been  accustomed  to 
carry  watches,  but  a  schoolroom  clock  was  a  very  recent 


Later  Characteristics 


93 


First  day  —  waiting  for  the  teacher 

idea.  This  one  was  bought  by  a  subscription  that  the 
scholars  raised  among  their  respective  parents,  and  it  was 
fastened  to  the  wall  over  one  of  the  blackboards,  where  the 
children  could  note  how  time  flew,  though  it  must  be  con- 
fessed they  usually  thought  time  did  not  fly  at  all,  but  on 
the  contrary  went  very  slowly. 

Another  village  subscription  supplied  the  schoolroom 
with  a  number  of  lamps,  which,  with  their  shining  tin 


94  The  Country  School 

reflectors,  had  been  fastened  up  at  intervals  along  the  walls. 
These  saved  the  trouble  of  bringing  from  the  homes  lamps 
and  lanterns  for  illuminating  purposes  every  time  the  vil- 
lagers gathered  for  a  lyceum,  or  a  Christmas  tree,  or  an 
evening  prayer-meeting. 

^  School  began  at  nine  o'clock,  with  reading  a  chapter  from 
the  New  Testament.  The  scholars  read  in  turn  two 
verses  each  as  long  as  the  chapter  lasted,  and  then  put  their 
arms  on  the  desks,  bowed  their  heads  on  them,  and  with 
Vthe  teacher  repeated  the  Lord's  Prayer  in  concert.  Next 
came  the  clatter  of  getting  out  books  and  other  work- 
ing apparatus,  and  the  asking  of  questions  and  making 
requests  of  the  teacher.  In  a  few  minutes  they  had  set- 
tled down  to  their  tasks,  and  the  teacher  began  hearing 
recitations.  The  A-B-C  class  ^as  called  first,  then  the 
class  in  the  First  Reader,  then  the  class  in  the  Second 
Reader,  and  so  on.  The  teacher  had  on  her  desk  a  little 
bronze  bell  with  a  wooden  handle,  which  she  tinkled  to 
call  and  dismiss  the  classes.  Each  class  was  expected 
to  stand  in  a  straight  line,  toeing  a  certain  crack  in  the 
floor  which  possessed  greater  merits  for  a  toe-line  than  its 
fellows  because  it  had  more  width. 

As  the  forenoon  wore  on,  the  smallest  children  were 
allowed  to  go  out  for  what  was  called  the  "little  recess," 
provided  it  was  summer  time.  Just  how  they  amused 
themselves  it  is  not  easy  to  say,  for  the  youngest  children 


Later  Characteristics 


95 


manage  to  have  a  very  good  time  with  the  very  simplest 
of  accessories.  North  and  east  of  the  schoolhouse  v^ere 
apple  orchards,  w^here  the  scholars  were  privileged  to  help 
themselves  to  such  fruit  as  they  found  lying  on  the  ground. 
Just  outside  the  school  yard  was  a  great  maple,  and  down 
the  road  a  short  distance  was  another  nearly  as  large. 
In  the  spring  these  trees  dropped  quantities  of  their  winged 
seeds  into  the  grass.  If  you  laid  them  on  the  hard  dirt 
and  stepped  on  them  just  right,  they  would  burst  with  a 
faint  pop.     A  child  dearly  loves  a  pop,  be  it  great  or  small, 


Cubbyhouse  dolls 

and  will  expend  a  good  deal  of  time  and  ingenuity  de- 
vising means  whereby  he  can  make  things  explore  and 


96  The   Country  School 

rejoice  his  soul  with  the  sound  produced  —  the  more  vio- 
lent, the  better. 

There  was  one  period  when  nearly  every  boy  had  an 
empty  tin  can  with  a  string  run  through  the  bottom  and 
fastened  to  a  stick.  This  contrivance,  when  its  possessor 
whirled  it  about  his  head,  made  the  most  horrible  noise 
that  can  be  imagined.  No  one  except  the  boys  could 
stand  the  racket  thus  produced,  but  they  gloated  over 
it.  Discordant  sounds  never  disturbed  their  sense  of 
harmony. 

One  boy  in  the  school  was  so  organized  that  he  could 
throw  his  thumbs  out  of  joint,  at  the  same  time  producing 
a  quite  perceptible  cracking  sound.  He  was  looked  up 
to  as  an  authority  and  genius  in  the  matter  of  poppings 
and  crackings.  He  could  also,  by  opening  his  mouth 
and  rapping  on  his  head  with  his  knuckles,  produce  a 
dubious*and  hollow  sound  that  would  make  one  think  his 
head  was  nearly  empty.     Perhaps  it  was ! 

A  paper  bag  blown  full  of  air  and  crushed  made  a  de- 
lightfully loud  explosion,  but  these  bags  seldom  found 
their  way  to  the  schoolhouse.  The  best  poppers  within 
reach  were  large  leaves,  which  were  laid  across  a  circle 
made  by  the  thumb  and  forefinger  of  the  left  hand  and 
slapped  with  the  palm  of  the  right.  The  girls  could  make 
very  pretty  wreaths  of  the  maple  leaves,  weaving  them 
together  by  means  of  their  long  stems.     Dandelions  in 


A  hard  sum 


Later  Characteristics  97 

the  season  were  a  source  of  amusement.  "I'm  going  to 
see  whether  my  mother  wants  me  or  not,"  says  Jenny. 
She  draws  in  a  full  breath  and  blows  very  hard  at  the 
white  dandelion  head  held  before  her  pursed  lips.  If  all 
the  seeds  are  blown  away,  she  knows  her  mother  does 
want  her;  but  if  any  remain,  it  is  settled  that  she  is 
not  then  needed.  The  long,  hollow  dandelion  stems, 
if  held  in  the  mouth  and  split  slowly  with  the  tongue, 
curled  in  two  very  neat  and  tight  rolls.  When  shaken 
out,  these  formed  spirals  that,  hung  over  the  ears,  made 
quite  enticing  earrings. 

Another  useful  flower  was  the  buttercup.  It  was  an 
excellent  medium  by  which  to  determine  the  important 
question  whether  one  loved  butter  or  not.  Just  hold  it 
under  Jenny's  or  Johnny's  chin,  and  if  you  see  a  yellow 
reflection  from  its  burnished  petals,  that  is  a  sure  sign 
that  he  or  she  loves  butter. 

Beside  the  road,  near  by,  were  some  great  coarse  bur- 
dock plants.  The  green  and  purple  burs  could  be  stuck 
together  into  very  neat  baskets.  Then  there  was  a  sturdy 
dooryard  plant,  the  mallow,  whose  round,  flat  seeds  were 
called  by  the  children  "cheeses,"  and  which  were  con- 
sidered quite  good  eating.  Sorrel  leaves  and  clover  blos- 
soms were  other  sources  of  food  supply. 

Back  of  the  schoolhouse  was  a  wide  meadow  where  the 
children  out  at  "little  recess"  chased  the  butterflies  with 


98 


The  Country  School 


their  straw  hats,  and  gathered  bouquets  of  the  flowers 
that  grew  among  the  grasses.  The  best  of  all  the  sources 
of  pleasure  anywhere  near  was  a  little  brook  that  ran  along 
the  borders  of  the  meadow.  There  were  endless  possi- 
bihties  of  fun  in  that  bit  of  water.  The  children  could 
paddle  in  it,  they  could  sail  things  on  it,  they  could  wet 
up  their  mud  pies,  and  they  could  build  a  dam  that  would 
make  it  overflow  its  banks.     In  winter,  if  the  season  fa- 


A  drink  from  a  stream  on  the  way  home  from  school 


Later  Characteristics  99 

vored,  the  brook  filled  two  or  three  of  the  meadow  hollows. 
These,  when  frozen  over,  made  excellent  skating  ground. 
The  scholars  were  often  on  the  ice  before  it  was  fairly 
safe.  There  was  a  pleasurable  excitement  to  the  venture- 
some ones  in  sliding  on  a  "bender."  A  bender  was 
made  by  sliding  across  weak  ice  which  cracked  as  you 
slid.  The  longer  the  sliding  was  continued,  the  more  the 
ice  sagged  beneath  each  passing  weight ;  and  the  more  it 
bent,  the  greater  waxed  the  excitement.  Finally,  some 
one  broke  through  and  got  his  feet  wet,  and  then  the  crowd 
all  went  up  to  the  schoolhouse  satisfied. 

In  warm  weather,  when  the  whole  school  came  out  for 
the  "big  recess,"  the  favorite  game  was  ball.  This  was 
more  particularly  a  boy's  game,  though  the  girls  played 
too,  sometimes.  After  the  grass  was  cut  they  hked  to  have 
their  ball  game  in  the  meadow,  but  for  the  most  part  they 
contented  themselves  with  the  dusty  roadway.  Playing 
horse  was  in  high  esteem,  and  at  times  even  the  charms 
of  the  ball  game  paled  before  the  delights  of  racing,  and 
every  child  carried  around  ten  or  fifteen  feet  of  string  in 
his  or  her  pocket.  There  were  all  kinds  of  horses,  from 
"Stick-in-the-Mud"  to  "Maud  S";  from  the  trained 
circus-horse  to  the  wild  horses  of  the  plains.  The  schol- 
ars drove  each  other  to  school,  and  they  drove  each  other 
home,  and  raced  at  every  opportunity  between  whiles. 

"Jail"    was   another   game   played.     The    woodhouse 


100  The  Country  School 

served  as  a  prison,  and  the  jailor  caught  the  prisoners 
running,  and  in  imagination  he  shut  them  up  there; 
but  as  the  woodhouse  had  no  door,  it  was  necessary  that 
those  caught  should  agree  not  to  break  out.  ''Bear" 
was  played  in  something  the  same  way.  The  woodhouse 
was  the  bear's  den,  and  thence  he  issued  forth  and  cap- 
tured the  others.  In  the  fall  great  piles  of  fallen  leaves 
were  raked  together,  and  the  "bear"  was  covered  up  in 
them.  The  school  gathered  around  the  heap,  and  then 
the  "bear"  sprang  out  with  terrible  growls  and  a  grand 
scattering  of  leaves,  and  chased  whichever  of  the  children 
came  handiest. 

In  winter,  besides  sliding  and  skating,  there  was  a  good 
deal  of  desultory  snowballing.  Sometimes  the  snow- 
balling went  far  beyond  the  bounds  of  gentleness  or  mis- 
chief, and  the  white  missiles  were  hurled  in  swift  anger 
and  there  were  fights,  and  faces  were  washed,  and  the 
vanquished  were  ducked  in  the  snowbanks.  This  was 
not  a  serious  matter  to  the  big  boys,  but  the  little  fellows 
had  some  hard  experiences.  Let  some  great  rough  boy 
catch  a  little  one  and  proceed  to  jam  him  into  a  drift, 
or  let  the  big  fellow  chase  the  small  one  with  a  threatening 
snowball  —  there  will  be  few  occasions  in  all  the  trembling, 
gasping  little  lad's  after-hfe  when  he  will  suffer  such  terror. 
At  the  time  Charlie  Smithson  first  went  to  school  there 
was  one  big  Irish  boy  by  the  name  of  Jim  Londergrass 


/ 


Later  Characteristics 


lOI 


who  acted  as  a  protector  to  the  small  children.  He  was 
a  most  good-natured  fellow,  and  he  would  allow  the  boys 
to  throw  snow  at  him 
and  knock  him  about 
as  much  as  they 
pleased;  but  if  any 
of  them  were  rough 
with  a  little  one,  they 
heard  from  him  very 
quickly.  Jim  left 
school  in  a  year  or 
two  and  went  away 
to  work.  Charlie  has 
never  heard  from  him 
since,  but  Jim  has 
always  been  treasured 
in  his  memory  as  a 
true  knight  and  hero. 
At  times  the  boys 
divided  into  sides  and 
had  pitched  battles 
with  their  snowballs. 
Once     they    built     a 


The  youngest  scholar 


snow  fort  and  planned  for  a  fight  that  was  to  be  particu- 
larly grand.  Some  of  the  boys  prepared  frozen  snow- 
balls  for  the  occasion.     Luckily,   a  thaw  set  in  which 


102 


The  Country  School 


Doing  arithmetic  examples 

laid  the  fort  in  ruins,  and  this  desperate  battle  was  not 
fought. 

After  the  morning  recess  the  several  classes  in  arith- 
metic recited.  All  but  the  very  highest  schoolbooks 
were  illustrated  quite  fully,  even  the  arithmetics;  and 
each  book  had  a  picture  on  its  board  covers.  When 
reciting  in  mathematics,  the  scholars  stood  a  part  of  the 
time  in  line  and  answered  questions  and  repeated  rules, 
and  a  part  of  the  time  "did  examples  on  the  board." 

There  was  one  teacher  who  kept  Charlie  Smithson  on 
the  multiplication  table  a  whole  term,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  he  told  her  he  was  much  beyond  that.  He  got  so 
he  could  say  it  over  frontward  and  backward,  beginning 


Later  Characteristics  103 

at  either  end  or  in  the  middle,  and  he  frequently  covered 
one  of  the  small  blackboards  with  it  written  out,  from 
2X1  =  2  to  12x12  =  144. 

Charlie's  most  serious  trouble  with  arithmetic  came 
when  he  met  with  long  division.  For  several  days  he 
studied  the  new  problems  and  attempted  them  on  his 
slate,  but  they  seemed  hopelessly  entangled.  A  boy 
from  a  neighboring  town  visited  school  about  that  time, 
and,  though  no  older  than  Charlie,  it  was  said  he  could 
do  examples  in  long  division.  Charlie  regarded  him  as 
a  prodigy,  and  sank  in  deeper  gloom.  But  one  day  light 
burst  on  his  mind,  and  after  that  he  could  only  wonder 
what  it  was  that  had  puzzled  him. 

All  the  children  struck  snags  of  some  sort  in  their  arith- 
metic. Once  a  class  was  doing  examples  at  the  black- 
board, and  the  teacher  tested  their  capacity  by  giving  them 
a  few  problems  not  in  the  book.  Among  the  rest  was 
this :  — 

"  How  many  years  have  passed  since  our  forefathers 
landed  at  Plymouth?" 

Most  of  the  children  put  down  their  dates,  and  there  was 
a  sharp  rattle  and  scraping  of  crayons  as  they  each  hurried 
to  get  the  answer  as  near  first  as  might  be.  Soon  most 
of  them  had  finished,  and  some  had  the  right  answer  and 
some  had  not. 

There  was  one  Httle  girl,  however,  with  her  nose  to  the 


104  The  Country  School 

blackboard,  and  standing  first  on  one  foot  and  then  on 
the  other,  who  was  making  no  progress.  She  had  the 
date  1620  written  down  and  under  it  a  figure  4,  and  that 
was  all. 

"Well,  Katy,"  said  the  teacher,  ''what  does  the  one 
thousand  six  hundred  and  twenty  stand  for?" 

"That  was  when  they  landed,"  was  Katy's  reply. 

"Very  good,"  responded  the  teacher;  "but  the  4  — 
what  is  that  for?" 

"That,"  said  Katy,  fingering  her  chalk  nervously,  "is 
for  our  four  fathers ;  but  I  don't  know  whether  to  multiply 
or  divide." 

Sometimes  the  whole  school  joined  in  a  mental  arith- 
metic exercise.  The  teacher  would  say,  "Add  two  and 
two;  multiply  by  four;  take  away  six;  divide  by  five," 
etc.,  and  after  a  while  ask,  "Now,  how  many  of  you  have 
the  answer?" 

Up  would  go  the  hands  of  those  who  had  been  able  to 

follow  the  processes,  or  thought  they  had,  and  the  teacher 

would  call  on  some  one  for  the  answer.     This  exercise 

was  considered  very  exciting  and  interesting. 

/^   The  afternoon  began  with  another  hearing  of  the  read- 

)  ing  classes ;    then  followed  the  class  in  grammar,  one  in 

"^  history,   and   the   afternoon   closed   with   the   geography 

classes.     In  the  geography  lessons  the  children  often  drew 

maps  on  the  boards.     Sometimes  they  drew  them  off- 


Later  Characteristics 


105 


hand,  and  sometimes  they  used  straight-hned  diagrams 
to  help  them  make  what  they  drew  more  Hke  the  real 
things. 

When  CharHe  got  his  first  new  geography  book,  and 
the  class  was  organized,  he  went  at  the  study  with  great 
energy  and  even  took  his  book  home.     On  the  morning 


A  New  England  academy 

of  the  day  they  were  to  recite  the  first  lesson,  he  informed 
the  teacher  that  he  had  studied  his  geography  over  five 
times  the  night  before.  The  teacher  rewarded  this  assidu- 
ity by  letting  him  stand  at  the  head  of  the  class,  although 
he  was  one  of  its  smallest  members ;  but,  to  his  surprise, 
in  spite  of  all  his  studying,  not  a  single  question  could  he 
answer.    He  had  simply  read  the  words  of  his  lesson, 


io6  The  Country  School 

and  had  not  attempted  to  fix  in  his  mind  the  ideas.  Next 
day,  from  a  humble  position  at  the  foot  of  the  class,  he 
did  much  better. 

A  quarter  of  an  hour  before  the  morning  recess,  the 
(writing  books,  which  the  teacher  kept  in  her  desk,  were 
distributed,  and  the  children  got  out  their  pens  and  un- 
corked their  ink  bottles,  and  proceeded  to  copy  line  after 
line  of  the  mottoes  at  the  head  of  each  page.  The  smallest 
pupils  exercised  their  ingenuity  in  making  straight  and 
curved  lines  with  a  lead  pencil,  or  in  tracing  over  the  blue 
lines  of  printed  copy,  while  the  conscientious  older  ones 
gave  their  minds  to  putting  in  the  flourishes  and  the  shad- 
ing just  right.  Meanwhile  the  teacher  walked  about  and 
kept  lead  pencils  sharpened,  gave  advice  as  to  what 
had  best  be  done  when  a  bad  blot  was  made,  or  a  page 
filled  out  ahead  of  time,  and  now  and  then  sat  down  by 
a  scholar  and  showed  just  how  a  particular  bit  should  be 
written.  The  teacher  usually  had  the  children  sit  in  a 
certain  posture,  and  tried  to  have  them  take  an  easier 
position  with  their  fingers  than  the  stubby  grip  on  pen 
or  pencil  that  seemed  to  come  natural. 

Occasionally,  drawing  was  taught  in  the  school,  and 
every  child  had  a  brown-leaved  drawing-book  of  the 
same  oblong  shape  as  the  writing-books.  On  each  leaf,  at 
one  side,  were  patterns  to  copy,  with  some  printed  matter 
explaining  how  it  was  to  be  done.     First  came  straight 


Sharpening  one  oj  the  children's  pencils 


Later  Characteristics  107 

lines  and  squares  and  circles,  and  gradually  more  com- 
plicated forms,  solid  bodies,  vases,  and  flowers.  In  the 
book  Charlie  used,  the  final  masterpiece  was  a  bit  of 
potato  top  in  blossom.  Potato  plants  he  had  always 
thought  very  homely  as  he  saw  them  growing  in  the  fields, 
but  here  it  seemed  really  a  thing  of  beauty. 

Many  of  the  teachers  had  a  few  moments  of  gymnastics 
in  school  each  session.  The  pupils  stood  by  their  desks 
to  go  through  the  various  movements,  and  in  the  parts 
where  there  was  stamping  or  hand-clapping,  considerable 
enthusiasm  was  aroused  in  seeing  how  much  noise  could 
be  made.  In  the  bendings  backward,  forward,  or  side- 
ways there  was  always  interest  in  determining  just  how 
far  one  could  go,  even  though  it  endangered  one's  equiHb- 
rium;  and  in  the  motions  which  called  for  a  clenched 
fist  there  were  those  whose  imaginations  were  stimulated 
to  fancy  themselves  engaged  in  a  pugilistic  encounter. 
Such  were  particularly  exhilarated  when  their  fists  came 
into  semiaccidental  encounter  with  a  neighbor. 
V  Singing  found  frequent  place  in  the  school  exercises 
^when  the  teacher  was  herself  gifted  in  that  way.  Gospel 
Hymns  was  the  favorite  book  for  selections  on  such  occa- 
sions. Whatever  the  musical  lacks  of  the  performance 
were,  the  volume  of  sound  could  always  be  depended  on 
to  be  fully  up  to  the  mark,  when  the  song  had  a  lively  and 
easily  caught  movement. 


io8 


The  Country  School 


Teachers  sometimes  read  to  the  scholars  a  Httle  each 
day,  or  for  an  hour  or  so  on  Friday  afternoons.  One  of 
Charhe's  teachers  read  them  an  exciting  book  about  In- 
dians and  hunters,  and  for  that  reason  Charhe  thought 
her  about  the  best  teacher  that  ever  was.  The  book 
was  so  fascinating  that  the  scholars  would  gladly  stay  in 
at  recess  to  hear  it  read. 

Punishments,  as  a  whole,  had  become  much  milder 


m 


A  rainy-day  school  at  home 


Later  Characteristics  109 

than  in  the  old  days,  and  many  teachers  got  along  with- 
out any  punishments  that  involved  bodily  pain  or  made 
the  child  a  spectacle  of  supposed  shame  to  his  fellows. 
^^Thrashings''  were  no.  more,  but  once  in  a  great  while 
a  teacher  would  resort  to  feruling.  The  front  seats  and 
standing  room  on  the  floor  were  reserved  for  those  who 
misbehaved,  and  there  were  occasions  when  it  seemed 
necessary  to  keep  a  child  in  at  recess  or  after  school. 

There  was  a  great  difference  in  teachers.  Some  were 
in  earnest  and  did  careful,  faithful  work,  but  now  and 
then  there  was  one  who  was  careless,  and  more  interested 
in  her  own  ease  than  in  the  scholars'  progress.  But  a 
very  poor  teacher  was  not  apt  to  stay  long.  The  pupils 
were  sure  to  report  at  home  what  she  did  and  said,  and 
when  the  tide  of  public  sentiment  set  strongly  against  her, 
she  had  to  leave. 

"^  The  garments  the  children  wore  were  in  patterns  and 
materials  much  more  varied  than  in  times  past,  yet 
simpler  than  at  present.  The  girls'  waists,  as  compared 
with  the  modern  fashion,  were  quite  tight-fitting.  Their 
stockings  for  a  decade  or  more  after  the  civil  war  were 
striped  in  narrow  horizontal  bars,  or  white,  though  the 
latter  were  usually  reserved  for  Sundays  and  dress-up 
occasions.  Later,  black  stockings  became  the  rule.  The 
girls  wore  their  hair  short  until  about  the  age  of  ten, 
and  held  it  back  from  the  forehead  with  a  pHant,  semi- 


no  The  Country  School 

circular  comb,  or  with  a  pretty  ribbon  an  inch  or  so 
wide  that  passed  from  the  back  of  the  neck  to  the  top 
of  the  head,  where  it  was  tied  in  a  bow. 

Many  of  the  boys  and  some  of  the  girls  inherited  their 
elders'  outgrown  or  worn-out  clothes,  which  needed  only 
a  little  adjusting  or  making  over  to  fit  them  for  further 
duty.  Short  trousers  began  to  come  into  vogue  about 
1880,  but  the  country  folk  were  inclined  to  regard  them 
as  a  town  affectation  not  at  all  desirable  for  comfort  or 
beauty,  and  a  number  of  years  passed  before  they  were 
generally  adopted.  Hats,  both  straw  and  felt,  were  the 
common  head  covering  for  the  boys,  with  roomy  ear- 
lapped  caps  for  winter,  but  at  length  close-fitting  Httle 
caps  became  almost  universal.  At  one  time  the  boys 
used  to  have  copper-toed  and  red-topped  boots  for  winter 
wear,  but,  later,  shoes  and  rubbers  came  into  more  general 
use.  In  summer  most  of  the  boys  went  barefoot,  and  in 
the  driest  times  it  was  agreeable  to  the  boy  to  follow  along 
the  middle  of  the  road  on  his  way  to  school,  stubbing  up 
as  big  a  cloud  of  dust  as  he  knew  how.  Once  in  a  while 
a  girl  went  to  school  barefoot,  but  that  was  not  the  rule. 

Visitors  were  infrequent.  When  they  did  come,  the 
scholars  seemed  to  think  they  would  bear  watching  — 
at  least  they  did  watch  them.  The  most  important  vis- 
itor was  the  chairman  of  the  school  committee.  While 
he  was  there,  the  classes  were  all  called  out  to  give  him 


Later  Characteristics  iii 

an  idea  of  the  progress  they  were  making.  One  thing 
he  was  sure  to  do  in  the  reading  lessons,  after  a  child  had 
read,  was  to  ask,  "Now  what  was  it  those  people  did 
whom  you  were  reading  about?" 


The  class  in  the  Fifth  Reader 

The  boy  turned  to  his  book  and  started  to  repeat  the 
words  in  the  same  sing-song  manner  as  before. 

"No,  no,"  said  the  committee-man,  "shut  your  book, 
and  tell  me  what  they  did." 

That  accomplished,  he  would  try  to  get  the  boy  to  read 
conversationally,   instead  of   sing-song,   but   his   success 


112  The  Country  School 

was  not  flattering.  Just  before  the  committee-man  left, 
the  scholars  shut  up  their  books  and  sat  up  straight, 
while  the  visitor  rose,  put  his  hands  behind  his  back,  and 
made  some  ''remarks"  to  them.  These  were  to  the  pur- 
port that  they  should  be  tidy,  and  keep  the  room  neat, 
and  that  it  would  be  a  great  help  to  success  in  after-life 
to  have  good  lessons  and  to  learn  to  behave  well. 

The  one  grand  occasion  of  the  term  was  "examination 
day."  The  schoolroom  was  swept  out  very  clean  the  pre- 
ceding night,  or  perhaps  well  scrubbed  with  soap  and 
water,  so  that  a  slight  odor  of  soapiness  and  sense  of 
dampness  lingered  all  through  the  following  day.  The 
morning  session  was  a  short  one,  that  the  children  might 
have  plenty  of  time  to  eat  dinner  and  dress  themselves  in 
their  "  Sunday-go- to-meetin's."  They  came  in  the  after- 
noon very  spick  and  span.  Chairs  were  brought  in  from 
the  neighbors',  and  a  little  mild  play  indulged  in  before  the 
bell  rang  to  call  them  indoors.  Not  much  was  done  until 
the  audience  began  to  arrive,  and  an  air  of  expectancy 
and  solemnity  brooded  over  the  schoolroom.  Women  and 
very  small  children  were  the  only  visitors,  usually,  and  it 
was  before  them  that  the  scholars  were  called  out  to  recite 
such  things  as  they  knew  best,  and  possibly  to  speak  a 
few  pieces  and  read  compositions.  The  visitors  were 
further  entertained  by  being  allowed  to  examine  the  pupil's, 
writing-books,  and  to  look  through  the   school    register. 


Later  Characteristics 


"3 


wherein  each  child's  regularity  of  attendance  was  indi- 
cated, and  where  were  put  down  the  names  of  such  callers 
as  had  been  to  the  school.  By  and  by  there  was  a  recess, 
where,  of  necessity,  the  play  was  not  very  vigorous,  be- 
cause the  children  all  had  their  best  things  on,  in  which 
they  were  less  comfortable  and  free  than  usual,  and  which 
they  felt  under  obligation  to  keep  slick  and  clean.  When 
school  was  finally  dismissed  for  good  and  the  scholars 
were  out  of  doors,  they  rejoiced  in  a  pandemonium  of 
shoutings  and  waving  of  hats. 

They  rejoiced  because  the  school  term  had  come  to 
an  end ;  and  yet  what  happier  experiences  does  life  bring 
than  in  the  care-free  days  one  spends  in  a  Country  School? 


The  good  hoy  who  is  allowed  to  study  out  of  doors 


V 

HOW   THE   SCHOLARS   THINK   AND   WRITE 

HUMOR,  it  is  said,  consists  in  the  unexpectedness 
of  an  idea  or  expression.  Even  a  good  joke 
heard  a  second  time  has  lost  something  of  its 
flavor;  and  a  popular  bit  of  slang,  which  originally  may 
have  had  an  agreeable  tang  about  it,  wearies  and  disturbs 
by  its  frequent  repetition. 

The  thoughts  of  a  child  continually  wander  aside  from 
the  routine  paths  to  which  the  minds  of  its  elders  are  apt 
to  confine  themselves,  and  hence  its  speech  and  action  are 
full  of  unconscious  humor.  Indeed,  the  humor  must  be 
unconscious  to  have  any  charm,  for  the  child  who  tries 
to  be  funny  is  certain  to  make  a  dismal  failure  of  it.  Chil- 
dren are  readily  enkindled  with  interest  and  enthusiasm, 
and  their  thought  at  such  times  is  often  very  happy  and 
luminous.  It  many  times  runs  far  astray,  but  that  does 
not  make  it  less  interesting.  Nor  is  a  wrong  answer 
always  indicative  of  dulness  or  poor  teaching.  It  is  as 
frequently  due  to  brightness  and  originality. 

The  child,  when  it  begins  to  absorb  our  spoken  language, 
finds  the  medley  of  sounds  which  it  encounters,  with  all 

114 


How  the  Scholars  Think  and  Write 


"5 


their  different  meanings,  bewildering,  and,  as  is  to  be  ex- 
pected, often  uses  one  word  instead  of  another  which  to 
some  degree  resembles  it.  Children  jump  to  conclusions 
even  more  frequently  than  grown-up  people  do  — ■  which 
is  saying  a  good  deal  —  and  they  at  times  make  a  wild 
use  of  disconnected  ideas  that  they  have  chanced  to  pick 
up ;  but  they  at  other  times  will  make  an  explanation  with 
a  simplicity  and  patness  that  might  well  move  the  most 
learned  to  envy. 

In  writing,  children  get  badly  entangled  by  the  words 
which  are  not  spelled  as  pronounced.  They  have  a  strong 
inclination   to   spell  phonetically,  but  those  queerly  con- 


u 

ll 

Writing 


ii6 


The  Country  School 


structed  words  they  have  learned  haunt  their  minds  and 
they  sometimes  spell  one  of  the  simple  words  the  long 

way.  Punctuation  is  like- 
wise a  trouble  to  them. 
Usually  they  put  in  an 
occasional  period,  and 
may  even  venture  to  use 
a  comma,  but  they  are 
sparing  in  the  use  of 
both,  and  are  inclined  to 
avoid  other  marks  alto- 
gether. Capitals  are  an- 
lyi  ,  other  disturbing  element 

^H     \3 1 H.  to  the  Hmpid  flow  of  the 

^^    iSf"'^  child's     thought      when 

writing.    Children,  how- 
ever, are  pretty  sure  to 
start  with  a  capital  and 
begin  most  sentences  with 
one.  A  few  are  sprinkled 
in  promiscuously,  and  if 
some  are  misplaced,  oth- 
The  looking-glass  in  the  entry         gj-g  ^j-g  lacking  elsewhere, 
so  that  the  average  is  about  right.     A  scientific  division 
of  the  words  which  fall  last  on  the  lines  the  child  is  writing 
and  still  need  room,  is  understood  by  few.     Most  put  in 


How  the  Scholars  Think  and  Write        117 

a  hyphen  after  the  final  letter  the  Hne  will  contain,  with 
entire  independence  of  syllables,  and  begin  the  next  line 
where  they  left  off.  Others  avoid  the  dilemma  by  leaving 
a  margin  along  the  right  border  of  the  page,  so  that  long 
words  can  run  over  into  that  without  necessity  for  division. 
Still  others  turn  such  words  downward  along  the  edge  till 
written  out  in  a  cramped  fulness. 

The  scholars  are  most  entertaining  and  do  their  best 
when  writing  on  a  subject  which  engages  their  personal 
feeling  and  interest  —  something  which  is  a  part  of  their 
own  experience  and  observation.  What  they  write  of  things 
far  off  is,  as  a  rule,  dry  and  stiff.  Given  such  topics  the 
children  express  themselves  more  correctly  than  when 
writing  of  things  about  home  —  on  the  same  principle 
that  one  does  not  stumble  so  often  when  walking  sedately 
as  when  in  enthusiastic  haste.  But  culture  comes  from 
love  of  learning,  not  from  present  correctness  of  expres- 
sion, and  the  children  undoubtedly  gain  far  more  in 
putting  on  paper  what  they  have  learned  by  sight  and 
hearing  than  in  writing  out  what  they  have  gained  from 
books. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  the  ways  of  a  rustic  school 
in  the  little  village  of  Riverbend  were  described.  At  this 
school  on  Friday  afternoon,  the  final  session  of  the  week, 
the  usual  routine  was  abandoned  for  something  more 
entertaining.     On   one   such   occasion   the   teacher  read 


Ii8  The  Country  School 

aloud  to  her  scholars  Longfellow's  poem,  "The  Build- 
ing of  the  Ship,"  and  the  children  listened  attentively. 
They  seemed  to  enjoy  the  story  and  the  music  of  the  poetry 
thoroughly. 


The  second  class  in  reading 

When  the  teacher  finished  reading,  she  distributed  pen- 
cils and  paper  and  said,  "Now  you  may  write  the  four 
lines  of  the  poem  that  I  will  repeat  to  you;  and  I  will 
read  them  very  slowly  one  line  at  a  time :  — 

"  Thou,  too,  sail  on,  O  ship  of  State! 
Sail  on,  O  Union,  strong  and  great ! 
We  know  what  Master  laid  thy  keel, 
What  Workman  wrought  thy  ribs  of  steel." 


How  the  Scholars  Think  and  Write        119 

The  slow  ones  had  not  yet  done  writing  when  the  teacher 
noticed  that  May  Tyler's  hand  was  up,  and  gave  her  leave 
to  speak. 

"Sometimes" —  the  little  girl  began,  and  then  letting 
her  eyes  wander  about  among  the  other  scholars,  lost 
the  thread  of  her  intended  remark. 

''What  is  it,  'sometimes'?"  questioned  the  teacher. 

"Sometimes  you  let  us  draw  a  picture  to  go  with  what 
we  write,"  was  May's  response. 

"And  would  you  like  to  draw  a  picture  to  go  with  what 
you  have  written  to-day?"  said  the  teacher. 

"Yes,  yes!"  exclaimed  May  and  half  a  dozen  of  the 
others  eagerly. 

"Well,"  the  teacher  said,  doubtfully,  "I  don't  know 
that  I  object,  if  you  think  you  can  do  it." 

The  children  were  sure  they  could,  and  the  teacher 
gave  them  fresh  slips  of  paper.  She  was  curious  to  see 
what  they  would  make  out  of  the  subject.  A  "ship  of 
state"  seemed  to  her  to  offer  no  chance  for  a  picture.  But 
the  scholars  bent  intently  to  their  task,  and  showed  no 
signs  of  lack  of  inspiration. 

Now  a  hand  went  up.  It  was  Tommy  Halpin's. 
Tommy  was  one  of  the  smaller  children  who  sat  on  the 
front  seats.  His  eyes  were  still  on  the  paper  which  con- 
tained his  picture.  When  the  teacher  asked  him  what  he 
wanted,  Tommy  said,  "Can  I  put  a  name  on  my  ship?" 


120  The  Country  School 

"Yes,"  the  teacher  repUed,  and  Tommy  printed  it 
right  on,  and  then,  forgetting  in  his  enthusiasm  to  ask 
permission,  came  trotting  across  the  floor  to  show  his 
finished  drawing  to  the  teacher. 

She  laughed  a  little  when  she  saw  Tommy's  "ship  of 
state,"  but  she  told  him  he  had  made  a  very  good  drawing. 

The  vessel  in  his  picture 
looked  like  a  small  two-masted 
sailboat,  and  its  name,  JOLLY 
JO,  printed  in  mammoth  let- 
ters that  practically  covered 
one  side  from  stem  to  stem, 
seemed  very  well  suited  to 
such  a  craft. 

The   ships  of    state  drawn 
Tommys  ship  ^^  ^^^  ^^^^^  ^^.^^^^^  ^^^^  ^^ 

the  same  mild  character,  and  there  was  not  a  war  ship  in 
the  lot.  May  Tyler,  who  had  proposed  making  the  pic- 
tures, called  her  ship  the  BLUEBELL.  She  was  the 
last  to  finish ;  for  she  drew  as  a  background  a  long  moun- 
tain range,  with  the  sun  coming  up  over  it.  Hers  was  an 
open  boat  without  a  deck,  but  she  explained  she  had  to 
draw  it  that  way  in  order  to  show  its  "ribs  of  steel,"  which 
she  had  made  very  plain  and  black. 

The  teacher  thought  the  drawings  spirited  in  their 
way ;  but  she  was  not  altogether  pleased  to  have  the  ship 


How  the  Scholars  Think  and  Write        121 

of  state  appear  so  uniformly  as  a  pleasure  craft,  and  she 
took  pains  to  explain  to  the  children  the  real  meaning 
of  the  extract  they  had 
written.  In  conclud- 
ing she  had  each  pupil 
draw  a  United  States 
flaer  on  their  vessels,    *^^oi  .^^S'^^^^^t- 

and    this    established 

.  An  illustration  by  one  of  the  little  girls 

a  certam   relationship 

with  the  sentiment  of  the   verse  the   picture  illustrated, 
though  they  were  still  more  humorous  than  impressive. 

What  I  have  related  of  this  Friday  afternoon  was  char- 
acteristic of  most  of  the  other  Friday  afternoons,  and  in  the 
pages  which  follow  I  give  various  examples  of  the  chil- 
dren's off-hand  writing  and  illustrating,  and  a  list  of 
definitions  garnered  from  their  spelling  lessons. 


DEFINITIONS 

A  dwarf  is  one  that  holds  up  a  lady's  train. 

Sister :  If  there  was  a  girl  and  she  lived  at  your  house 
and  she  was  your  mother's  daughter,  then  she  would  be 
your  sister. 

Missionary:  One  who  makes  hats.  One  who  surveys 
land. 

The  missionaries  went  to  invert  the  Indians. 


122 


The  Country  School 


Remember  means  to  know  afterwards  what  you  know 
now. 

Some  kinds  of  pouhry  are  chickens,  hens,  and  lambs. 
A  territory  is  a  small  place  down  in  a  valley. 
Cutlery  is  knives,  forks,  and  sewing-machines. 
Work  is  keeping  at  something  all  the  time. 
Trouble  is  having  something  that  you  don't  like. 
History  is  studying  an  examination. 
Crying  is  skidding  tears. 

News  is  to  hear  something  that  we  have  not  beared 
before. 

Scholars  are  children  studying. 

Work  is  to  help  the  poor ;  that  is  the  best  of  work. 


A  hillside  schoolhouse 


How  the  Scholars  Think  and  Write        123 

If  there  was  a  poor  old  lady  living  alone,  it  would  be 
kindness  to  do  her  work. 

History  is  a  study  of  the  United  States. 

History  is  a  history  telling  about  olden  times. 

History  tells  about  wars. 

History  is  a  book  that  the  scholars  study  about. 

News  is  to  here  things. 

News  is  when  anything  new  happens. 

To  be  contented  is  to  have  everything  you  want. 

Contented  means  to  be  happy  wherever  you  are. 

Contented  is  when  you  have  enough. 

You  are  contented  when  you  are  asleep. 

To  cry  is  to  feel  very  bad. 

Work  means  to  do  something  hard. 

Bussy  is  when  you  have  a  lot  of  work  to  do. 

A  laugh  is  when  you  are  happy. 

Vegitables  are  all  kinds  of  fruit. 

The  diameter  of  the  earth  was  Noah's  dove. 

Colors  are  different  shades. 

Study  is  to  learn. 

Arithmetic  is  to  do  different  sums. 

Arithmetic  is  used  to  trade  with. 

Fire  is  very  hot  and  the  color  of  red. 

A  picture  is  to  repersent  anything. 

A  picture  is  something  that  looks  like  what  it  was  dravm 
from. 


124  The  Country  School 

A  picture  is  something  to  look  at. 

Writeing  is  made  of  ink  and  lead. 

Write  is  to  talk  with  letters. 

Paper  is  to  right. 

Reading  is  talking. 

An  animal  is  something  that  has  4  or  more  legs. 

An  animal  is  a  cow  who  gives  milk. 

Animals  are  made  of  flesh  and  bones. 

Dirt  is  something  we  could  not  live  without. 

An  oasis  is  a  desert  place. 

An  oasis  is  a  flock  of  trees  in  a  desert. 

A  gizzard  is  where  the  gravel  goes. 

A  gizzard  is  a  kind  of  fowl. 

Bacon  is  a  streak  of  lean  and  fat. 

Shoulder  is  the  joints  of  animals  which  holds  them  up. 

A  favor  is  to  do  something  good. 

Henpecked  means  to  be  governed  by  your  wife. 

Flowers  are  a  vegitable. 

Favor  is  a  bottle  of  water  that  smells  good. 

Favor  means  when  you  tell  some  one  to  go  after  some- 
thing and  they  go.  The  one  that  asks  the  boy  is  the  one 
who  does  the  favor. 

Favor  is  when  a  boy  does  something  for  his  mother. 

A  flag  is  what  you  wave. 

Metal  is  a  stone. 

Metal  is  something  good  to  wear. 


How  the  Scholars  Think  and  Write        125 

A  city  is  a  large  place. 

A  city  is  a  lot  of  buildings. 

A  city  is  a  place  where  they  sell  groceries. 

A  city  is  a  place  where  they  sell  grain  for  horses  and 
cows. 

Desire  means  to  know  everything. 

Velvet  means  the  fur  on  a  cat's  ear. 

Whisker  means  a  hair  on  a  cat's  mouth. 

Noiseless  means  to  make  a  little  noise. 

Spkled  means  little  dogs. 

Toothsome  means  hard. 

Almonds  are  a  kind  of  pudding. 

Occupations  of  people  in  Hadley:  Farming,  grinding, 
making  broomes,  keep  store,  keep  postoffice,  make  whips, 
make  candy,  they  bild  houses,  they  eat,  they  drink. 

Luncheon  means  to  eat  between  meals. 

Feast  means  to  have  a  good  deal. 

Sky  is  made  up  of  fog. 

The  sky  is  where  the  moon  and  sun  is. 

Air  is  a  good  deal  like  weather. 

Air  is  wind. 

Air  is  what  you  breave. 

Eat  is  to  make  your  jaws  go. 

Eat  means  the  digestion  of  food. 

To  eat  is  to  swallow  anything. 

To  eat  is  to  satisfy  your  appetite. 


126 


The  Country  School 


Home  is  the 
place  of  your  par- 
ents. 

Home  is  you's 
house. 

Calendars  are 
made  of  paper 
and  numbers. 

Calendars  are 
used  in  telling 
how  warm  and 
cold  it  is. 

Fruits  is  a  bige 
apples  is  a  red  and 
it  is  about  bigs  as  a 
pair  that  is  sweet. 
A  fruit  is  some- 
thing that  comes 
on  a  tree. 

A    whip    is    a 
stick   and  a  lash 
When  the  door  is  locked  q^i  the  end  of  it. 

A  whip  is  something  good  to  lick  horses  with. 
A  mountain  is  lots  of  trees. 
A  mountain  is  a  big  pile  of  dirt. 
Money  is  a  round  and  has  a  sign  on  it. 


How  the  Scholars  Think  and  Write        127 

Money  is  to  by  things  with. 

Sky  is  clouds. 

Sky  is  air. 

Sky  is  something  that  the  rain  falls  out  of. 

Weather  is  rain  or  shine. 

Eat  means  your  mouth. 

Play  means  when  you  are  running  around  and  hiding 
behind  trees  and  houses. 

Roasts  is  a  part  of  a  cow. 

The  cattle  products  of  South  America  are  hides,  tallow, 
and  silver. 

They  have  stews  at  boarding-houses. 

Government  is  the  governor. 

Fiercely  is  very  uggly. 

Ditches  is  a  hole. 

Destroy  means  to  have  a  book  tored  up. 

Pitfalls  means  to  pitty  anybody. 

Suddenly  meanes  that  think  she  will  die. 

Pounces  means  to  jump  up  on  a  cat  or  anything. 

The  number  of  people  on  the  earth  was  the  reason  for 
its  being  flattened  at  the  poles. 

Greedy  means  to  eat  some  food  away  from  another. 

Eager  is  to  watch  and  see  what  another  eats. 

Ravenous  means  hurry. 

Extravigrant  means  to  use  all  the  money  you  can. 

Lonesome  means  to  have  somebody  gone  away. 


128  The  Country  School 

Carelessly  means  to  lose  a  child. 
Invitation  means  to  go  to  a  house  to  eat. 
Business-like  is  a  man  that  works. 
Bordered  is  to  have  everything  in. 
Daughter  is  a  man's  girl. " 
Enter  is  to  go  to  the  school  house. 
Unlike  is  to  be  puplite  to  anybody. 
A  ball  is  made  out  of  leather  and  stuffins. 
A  bell  is  used  to  commence  school  with. 
Dictionary  is  where  they  keep  all  the  words  people 
don't  know. 

Carelessly  is  not  to  be  careless. 

The  almanac  is  to  look  up  things  with. 

The  almanac  tells  the  date  of  the  year. 

Earth  is  ground. 

A  ball  is  to  through. 

Pair  is  to  eat. 

Pare  is  shoes. 

A  book  is  a  thing  that  has  a  stiff  cover. 

A  bill  is  when  you  owe  somebody. 
«  Paint  is  something  red. 

Paint  is  a  yellow  color. 

The  sun.  is  a  thing  that  shines  in  my  eyes. 

A  blotter  is  some  ink  and  is  on  the  paper. 

Income  is  to  come  in. 

Income  means  to  go  to  a  house. 


Helping  a  little  one  on  with  her  things 


How  the  Scholars  Think  and  Write        129 

Passion  means  to  pass  a  car. 
Trading  is  to  biy  things. 
An  elf  is  a  small  animal. 
A  sheaf  is  any  bundle. 
Huge  means  to  feel  bad. 
Leaf  is  any  thin  piece. 

A  bell  is  something  to  ring  made  of  tin  and  iron. 
Almanac  is  a  book  with  pictures  in  it. 
The  almanac  shows  us  when  it  is  going  to  rain  and 
when  there  is  going  to  be  a  knew  moon. 
Pair  is  a  fruit  that  grows  on  a  tall  tree. 

CONFESSIONS   OF   A    BAD   BOY   WHO   REFORMED 

I  was  a  cureious  little  boy  when  I  first  went  to  school 
I  dident  Hke  to  go  anyway.  I  would  torment  the  teacher 
the  worst  kind  and  I  would  do  every  thing  that  she  dident 
want  me  to  do  and  if  she  wanted  me  to  do  a  thing  I  would- 
ent  do  it  and  she  got  so  mad  with  me  she  would  shut  me 
up  in  the  closit  but  that  dident  do  no  good.  I  would 
get  out  of  the  window  and  go  home,  when  I  got  up  to 
read  I  would  say  whatever  came  into  my  mind  and  she 
would  send  me  to  my  seat,  and  I  would  sit  and  laugh 
over  it  like  a  monkey  but  she  thought  she  would  try  a 
new  rule  to  be  sure,  she  would  give  me  a  good  whipping 
with  the  ruelar  when  I  dident  mind,  that  I  got  use  to 
after  a  while  and  didient  mind  it     when  I  came  to  school 


130 


The  Country  School 


in  the  winter  time  I  would  bring  snow  in  on  my  feat  she 
would  tell  me  to  go  back  out.     I  was  so  cold  I  dident  want 

to  and  she  would 
give  me  a  good 
shaking  and  I 
liked  it  beau- 
cause  it  warmed 
me  up.  the  next 
teacher  we  got 
was  better  than 
the  first  one  she 
I  liked  very 
much  she  would 
give  a  card  every 
night  when  I 
The  teacher  gives  one  of  the  boys  a  shaking  went  home  and 
{Drawn  by  the  boy)  ^^^    ^^-^    j    ^^^ 

the  best  boy  in  school.  I  carraid  my  dinner  to  school, 
there  was  a  big  tree  near  the  school  house  us  boys  would 
get  up  in  the  tree  to  eat  our  dinners  one  of  the  boys 
got  out  to  far  on  the  limb  and  it  broke  and  he  fell  but  he 
loged  on  a  nother  limb  down  a  little  ways. 


How  the  Scholars  Think   and  Write        131 

POETRY 

Composed  on  the  26th  day  of  February.  • 

We  heard 
A  blue  bird 
This  morninf^ 
As  a  warning 
That  spring  is  near 
And  is  all  most  here. 

A   LETTER 

Harry  made  a  tobogain  Sataday.  and  we  had.  som 
slides  it  was  very  very  coald  and  it  sleud  so  that  we  went 
down  the  hill  backwards. 

We  have  a  new  hierd  man  his  name  is  Robert  he 
seams  a  verry  good  man  so  far. 

I  can  scate  alone  but  I  fall  down  a  good  many  times. 
We  scate  on  a  pond  opersite  the  male  box. 

It  snowed  yesterday  and  rained  hard  in  the  night, 
and  so  we  have  a  crust  and  the  trees  look  like  glass  ones 
and  they  look  so  graceful  and  pretty  i  carnt  posably 
discrib  them,     every  thing  is  beautyful. 

We  go  to  school  now  and  the  week  slips  by  so  fast  that 
we  find  sataday  in  the  middle  of  the  week  so  we  should 
think.     We  doant  find  much  time  to  waist. 


132 


The  Country  School 


To  day  I  had  to  see  how  many  seconds  it  took  me  to 
add  8+9  +  5  +  4  +  8  +  7  +  8  +  94-8  +  7  +  6  +  6+7  +  8  +  9. 
it  took  me  30.     but  I  did  not  get  it  wright. 

Harry  choped  of  a  piece  of  a  log  of  slipery  elm  yester- 
day and  we  pealed  it  and  ate  some. 

Aunt  Sahra  is  a  bed  with  a  headake.  I  have  bin  sow- 
ing on  a  soing  machine. 

Laura. 

P.S.     this  is  the  largest  letter  I  ever  rote. 
P.S.     You  did  not  say  any  thing  about  my  last  letter 
so  i  think  it  was  rite. 


.£4^C^t^{yyip^ 


OUT   CAMPING.  —  A   STORY 

Once  there  was  a  boy  who  was  very  rich  he  become 
so  rich  he  bought  the  world.  One  day  he  was  out  camp- 
ing he  throught  he  would  go  out  f  hishing  so  he  got  in 
one  of  the  boats,  he  saw  some  whales  down  to  the  lower 
end  of  the  river  so  he  throught  he  would  catch  one,  so 


How  the  Scholars  Think  and  Write         133 

rowed  down  to  them,  be  four  he  got  down  there  one 
came  and  upset  the  boat,  and  he  swollow  him  and  the 
boat  floated  down  the  river,  so  one  day  his  mother  came 
down  to  the  camp,  so  she  went  out  in  the  boat  and  throught 
she  would  catch  one  and  she  caught  one  and  put  it  in  the 
boat  it  eat  her  up  and  the  boat  floated  down  the  river 
into  the  ocen 

COMPOSITIONS 

Jack  Frost 

Jack  frost  never  comes  out  in  the  summer.     But  in 

the  winter  he  is  out  every  day     then  he  bit  our  toes  and 

finger.     When  he  is  here  we  can  have  a  lot  of  fun     here 

are  some  of  the  thing  that  we  can  do  when 

he  is  here  shgh  down  hill,  make  snow  balls, 

get  sleight  ride,  get  our  feet  wet.     But  when 

he  is  gone  we  can  have  a  lot  of  fruit,  these 

are  some  of  the  fruits   pears   apples   cherry      ^      ,    „ 

^  ^  '-  A  schoolboy 

graps.  We  can  not  have  any  of  thoes  thing 
in  the  winter.  In  the  winter  time  we  have  more  fun  than 
in  the  summer.  We  can  go  scaking  on  the  rivers.  Some 
times  Jack  Frost  does  not  freez  the  water  hard  enought 
so  we  go  into  the  water  and  get  wet.  Jack  Frost  makes 
our  feet  wet  so  when  we  take  off  our  shoes  they  stick  to 
our  feet  and  so  w^hen  he  get  up  in  the  morning  we  have  a 
hard  time  geting  them  on. 


134  The  Country  School 

Trees 

Trees  grow  in  the  ground.  A  tree  is  tall,  it  bears  a 
good  many  kinds  of  friut  one  is  apples  another  is  pears. 
My  apples  trees  do  not  bear  any  fruit,  but  they  are  yoused 
for  shad  trees  and  to  get  the  sap  to  use.  Trees  are  very 
useful.  In  the  fall  the  leaves  of  Maple  turn  into  a  pretty 
collor  red  that  makes  it  look  pretty.  In  the  winter 
the  leaves  fall  off  of  the  trees  and  Icav  them  bear.  When 
the  leaves  fall  off  people  rake  them  up,  and  use  them  for 
beding.  In  the  spring  the  trees  commence  to  leaf  out. 
Trees  look  dead  in  the  winter,  and  in  the  summer  they 
do  not  look  dead  but  bright  and  leaves  on  them.  When 
trees  are  dead  they  have  no  leaves  on  them  and  do  not  bear 
any  fruit,  so  people  cut  them  down.  Trees  look  pretty 
and  bear  fruit  when  they  are  alive,  but  when  they  are  dead 
they  do  not  look  pretty  or  bear  fruit.  I  think  I  have 
ritten  quite  enough  so  I  think  I  had  better  stop. 

Chipmunks 

A  chipmunks  are  very  prety.  And  thare  are  a  graite 
menny  of  them.  And  they  eat  chestnuts  and  walnuts 
and  butternuts,  and  they  live  in  the  woods  i  think  I 
have  seen  one.  they  are  striped,  the  huntters  catch 
them,  they  store  thare  food  away  to  eat  in  the  winter, 
they  are  about  as  small  as  a  good  sized  rat.     we  see  them 


How  the  Scholars  Think  and  Write        135 

in  the  fall,     they  live  in  an  old  roten  trunks  of  trees, 
they  never  come  out  in  the  winter 

I  can  not  think  of  enny  think  elce  so  I  will  stop  Mary 
Smith. 

Facsimile  of  one  oj  the  youngest  scholars^  manuscripts 


Fish 

Fish  are  good  to  eat.  They  live  in  water  in  fresh  water 
and  salt  water,  in  ponds  brocks.  In  rivers  lakes  At- 
lantic Ocean  to.  We  catch  them  with  hooks  and  line. 
Fish  swim  with  fins  and  tail  to.  Some  have  no  eyes  in 
caves.     Sometimes  fish  eat  other  fish.     Fish  eat  insects. 


1^6  The  Country  School 

Going  to  School 

I  like  to  go  to  school.  I  like  to  study  in  my  books. 
I  am  in  the  third  reader  and  Arithmetic  and  Geogeraphy. 
the  school  is  made  of  brick  and  we  sing.  My  teacher 
dose  haft  to  write  songs  on  the  boart  and  then  we  learn 
them  and  sing  the  song  I  have  a  little  work  to  do  at  home. 
Be  fore  I  go  to  school  I  have  to  wash  my  face  and  hands 
and  change  my  dress  and  put  on  my  hat  and  coat  and  start 
off  for  school.  And  when  any  body  sayis  enny  sentes 
that  has  aint  I  poot  it  on  the  bord  and  leave  it  ther  till 
night  and  then  rase  it.  We  have  a  tree  a  little  awayes 
from  the  school  house  and  it  is  a  good  tree  to  it  is  a  tree 
that  dose  shade  the  hose  nise.  We  have  four  girls  in 
school  nine  boys  in  school.  We  have  in  school  five  black 
boards  in  school,  the  boards  are  about  full  every  moning. 
the  schoolers  want  to  go  to  the  boards  and  write  ther 
words  We  draw  at  school  every  fridday.  We  have  but 
one  teacher.  We  have  some  floer  seeds  in  the  bed  And  I 
must  tell  about  what  is  in  the  floer  bed  There  are  peonies 
poppies,  sweet  peaes,  scarlet  beanes,  moring  glories  lark- 
spur, gladioli,  holly,  hocks. 

And  that  is  what  we  have  got  in  the  floer  bed.  And 
what  we  play  at  recess  is  Kings-land  and  squart-tag  and 
stone-tag  and  wood-tag  and  hide  and  cop. 


How  the  Scholars  Think  and  Write        137 


The  perils  of  the  early  settlers 

Mis  Hap 

As  I  was  driveing  in  the  corn-field  to  smooth  off  the 
field  to  plant. 

I  turn  round  to  short  and  the  horses  turn  around  and 
round  tell  they  tip  the  smoother  up  endways  and  I  fell 
under  it  and  the  horses  got  fritting  and  ran  home  They 
was  a  nother  man  tried  to  stop  them  and  his  ran  a  way 
up  to  the  barn 

I  haller  whoa  but  they  did  not  stop  till  they  reach  the 
barn.  Then  we  came  runing  af  the  them.  When  they 
got  to  the  barn  they  tried  to  get  in  the  door.  They  did 
not  get  in  the  door  the  pepol  in  the  hou^  thought  they 
was  a  team  coming  in  the  yard  and  they  went  to  the  door 
and  saw  the  horses  come  full  speed. 

The  peopl  in  the  house  wear  scart  but  they  ran  out  caught 

thores  by  the  bridle,     the  swet  ran  off  of  one  hores  legs 

and  I  througt  he  was  bleeding.      I  back  the  hores  out 

of  the  barn  and  shith  them  up  and  took  them  down  to 

the  modow  again. 

The  End. 


138  The  Country  School 

Great   Funs  at  School 

Our  school  begins  at  nine  Oclock.  We  first  have  sing- 
ing &  then  comes  the  lessons  There  aint  but  three  boys 
in  school  larg  enough  to  play  ball  so  we  generaly  play 
Kingsland  I  live  only  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from 
the  school  house  so  I  go  home  to  diner.  At  reces  in  the 
afternoon  now  it  is  so  hot  that  we  do'nt  do  any  thing  but 
talk.  In  June  our  school  lets  out  for  a  long  vacation. 
Then  in  the  fall  the  school  begins  again.  &  it  is  cooler 
so  that  we  play  hide  &  coop  squat  tag  etc.  Then  the 
chestnuts  begin  to  get  ripe  &  our  teacher  gives  us  a  day 
to  go  chestnuting.  Then  it  begins  to  get  cold  &  we  hang 
around  the  stove  to  keep  warm.  Then  the  snow  begins 
to  come  &  we  have  great  fun  sliding  down  hil.  There  is 
a  large  hill  in  frunt  of  the  school  house  &  we  go  down  so 
fast  that  it  takes  your  breth  away  When  it  gets  very 
cold  &  the  ice  begins  to  freze  we  skate  up  &  down  the 
pond  like  the  wind.  When  it  snows  &  covers  the  pond 
we  take  a  shovel  &  broom  &  clean  it  off  Then  after  a 
while  it  begins  to  get  warm  &  the  ice  begins  to  get  weak. 
And  one  day  when  we  were  skating  the  ice  cracked  like 
every  thing  &  one  of  the  boys  got  in  but  we  did  not  stop 
skating  becaus  we  thought  it  would  soon  be  over  &  it 
was  soon  over  &  it  was  all  slush  &  mud.  And  we  made 
a  raft  and  floated  around  in  the  water  &  had  great  fun. 


How  the  Scholars  Think   and  Write        139 

After  a  while  the  water  came  up  very  high  &  the  teacher 
had  to  come  to  school  in  a  boat.  &  we  had  great  fun 
catching  flood  wood     The  water  came  up  so  high  that 


The  schoolhouse  in  flood-time 

some  of  the  houses  were  fluded     But  it  did  not  last  long 
&  then  it  came  around  to  hot  wether  again. 

Vacation 

In  vacation  we  have  lots  of  fun  and  lots  of  works  first 
comes  the  seeds  to  be  sowed  then  the  potatoes  and  com 
to  be  planted.  Then  comes  the  weeding  and  hoeing  to 
be  done.  I  do  not  like  to  weed  onions  it  is  a  tiresome 
job  to  be  bending  over  all  day  and  almost  breaks  my 


140  The  Country  School 

back.  2nd  picking  strawberries  is  also  a  tiresome  job 
mutch  like  weeding  onions.  But  work  is  not  all  of  the 
vacation  there  is  some  play  such  as  playing  base  ball 
Hide-and-go-seek  kingsland  foot  ball  etc.  Now  playing 
base  ball  is  a  very  good  game  but  you  are  apt  to  get  hurt 
such  as  spraining  your  finger  smashing  your  teeth  etc. 
the  best  of  kings-land  is  the  geting  the  one  who  is  it  on  to 
the  oposite  side  and  pull  his  hair,     foot  ball  is  a  very  ruff 


%  ^  m 


A  hay  field 

game  in  which  boys  are  hurt  quite  often.  Next  comes  the 
haying  we  begin  haying  about  the  22  of  June  that  is 
our  first  haying  first  the  grass  is  to  be  mowed  then  it  is 
to  be  shook  out  then  turned  over  a  cuple  of  times  then 
raked  up  then  loaded  into  the  wagon  then  tosed  into  the 
bay  and  it  is  done.  Then  comes  the  second  hoeing  not 
so  hard  as  the  first  but  hard  enough  for  me.  Then  the 
second  haying  not  as  good  a  crop  as  the  first  and  the  hay 
is  mad  just  as  the  first  crop  which  I  told  you  about.     Then 


How  the  Scholars  Think  and  Write        141 

comes  the  potatoes  to  be  dug  then  picked  up  and  put  in  to 
the  cellar.  Then  the  corn  to  be  cut  and  then  husked  and 
carried  to  the  barn  then  the  stalks  to  be  cut  up  and  made 
ready  for  the  cows  to  feed  on  during  the  winter.  Then 
the  other  vegitables  to  be  got  into  the  cellar  such  as  the 
squash  pumpkin  onions  etc.  But  to  take  it  away  through 
I  think  I  had  rather  have  vacation  than  school. 


Blackboard  drawings  :    "a  farmer,  his  little  girl,  and  his  wife 


VI 

SCHOOLHOUSE   ENTERTAINMENTS 

IN  the  central  villages  of  the  country  towns  it  is 
possible  during  the  leisure  of  the  winter  months 
to  get  up  social  diversions  that  are  quite  grand. 
But  to  whatever  dazzhng  height  of  attraction  these  may 
attain,  I  doubt  if  they  ever  have  the  charm  and  natural- 
ness to  be  found  in  the  schoolhouses  of  the  outlying 
hamlets.  The  characteristic  gathering  is  one  where, 
aside  from  the  enjoyment  afforded  by  the  meeting  of  neigh- 
bors in  friendly  converse,  there  is  a  programme  including 
recitations,  music,  and  possibly  a  dialogue.  The  items 
of  such  a  programme  are  handled  with  more  style  in  the 
larger  places,  but  in  the  ornate  town  celebrations  the 
individuality  that  glows  from  each  participant  in  the 
schoolhouse  merry-makings  is  apt  to  get  smoothed  out 
into  mannerism. 

Of  course,  in  certain  ways  the  isolation  of  an  outlying 
hamlet  is  a  handicap,  and  it  is  apt  to  be  a  source  of  regret 
to  the  inhabitants.  They  are  largely  dependent  on  them- 
selves for  diversion ;  and  yet  if  this  results  in  their  putting 
forth  extra  efforts  to  make  the  local  life  pleasant  and 
interesting,  the  isolation  may  be  a  blessing  in  disguise. 

142 


Schoolhouse  Entertainments 


143 


In  the  attempt  to  brighten  the  long  winter  evenings, 
there  are  various  social  gatherings  at  the  homes;  but  the 
schoolhouse  is  the  place  of  nieeting  on  the  more  important 
occasions,  and  the  children  of  the  school  furnish  the  back- 
bone of  these  rustic 
festivities.  The  Hter- 
ary  material  on  which 
the  children  draw  for 
subjects  is  often  artifi- 
cial or  commonplace; 
yet  they  themselve- 
are  so  sure  to  be  en- 
tertaining and  original 
that  you  readily  for- 
get the  respects  in 
which  their  perform- 
ance falls  short  of  a 
technical  ideal.  They 
each  have  a  piece  to 
speak;  and  in  addi- 
tion   to     that,    all     of  Trimming  the  Christmas  tree 

them  together  come  out  on  the  floor  several  times  and 
form  in  rows  with  the  teacher  beside  them,  and  sing  such 
songs  as  they  have  learned.  They  depend  a  great  deal 
on  their  teacher;  for  she  picks  out  the  verses  for  them 
to  memorize,  drills  them,  and  when  they  stand  before  the 


144 


The  Country  School 


audience,  she   is  near  at  hand  ready  to   prompt  when 
they  forget  the  words. 

The  audience  always  takes  special  pleasure  in  listening 
to  a  spicy  and  picturesque  dialogue;  but  space  limita- 
tions and  the  difficulty 
of  managing  a  lot  of 
children,  full  of  excite- 
ment over  the  glory  of 
the  occasion,  make  it 
unwise  to  attempt  any- 
thing very  elaborate. 
It  is  not,  however,  easy 
to  find  dialogues  that 
will  fit  the  need  of  the 
schoolhouse  either  in 
matter  or  manner. 
What  is  wanted  is  some- 
thing short,  requiring 
few  actors,  and  having 
a  homely  quaintness  of 
expression  and  of  situa- 
tions that  shall  be  pleasant  and  natural  from  the  child's 
point  of  view.  Sometimes  a  dialogue  from  a  book  or 
magazine  can  be  cut  down  and  adapted ;  but  the  two  little 
plays  which  follow  were  written  for  the  occasions^  when 
they  were  acted,  and  they  were  produced  with  entire  suc- 


Speaking  his  piece 


Schoolhouse  Entertainments  145 

cess.  By  that  I  do  not  mean  there  was  no  blundering. 
The  mistakes  and  accidents  were  half  the  fun,  and  were  ap- 
plauded as  heartily  as  that  which  was  done  most  cleverly. 
Whatever  the  lacks  of  the  performers,  the  dialogues  them- 
selves are  of  a  sort  that  seemed  excellently  suited  to  the 
place.  A  corner  of  the  schoolroom  was  curtained  off  and 
fitted  up  in  the  rude  likeness  of  a  room  in  an  old-fashioned 
farmhouse.  At  the  back  of  the  apartment  was  an  open 
fireplace  made  of  a  drygoods  box,  with  the  inside  roughly 
painted  to  imitate  smoke-blackened  bricks.  Several  an- 
cient chairs  were  scattered  about,  and  there  was  a  cot- 
bed,  a  bureau,  lamp,  and  clock.  The  first  of  the  dialogues 
was  acted  at  a  Christmas  celebration,  the  other  on  the 
evening  of  Washington's  Birthday.  The  former  was 
entitled 

CHRISTMAS   NIGHT 
CHARACTERS 

Santa  Claus,  with  white  beard  and  big  fur  coat. 
Tommy  1  brothers,  the  first  seven,  and  the  second  nine 
Freddy  J      years,  old. 

Tommy  {pawing  out  the  contents  of  a  bureau  drawer). 
Well,  I  don't  see  where  ma  put  those    stockings.     No, 
they  ain't  here. 

Freddy.   We'll  have  to  make  the  old  ones  do,  then. 


146 


The   Country  School 


I  don't  know  what  Santa  Claus'll  think  of  us  for  hanging 
up  such  things.  See  there,  now!  (Runs  his  arm  into 
the  long  stocking,  and  his  fingers  come  out  sprawling 
through  a  hole  at  the  other  end.) 


A  hunt  for  stockings 

Tommy.  The  presents  that  Santa  Claus  puts  in '11  all 
tumble  out  at  the  bottom.  Here,  you  stop  that,  Freddy ! 
You're  tearing  the  hole  bigger. 

Freddy.  We'll  have  to  tie  up  that  hole  to  make  the  stock- 
ing any  good.     Got  any  string,  Tommy  ? 


Schoolhouse  Entertainments 


147 


Tommy.  I  guess  so.  {Pulls  a  lot  of  things  out  of  his 
pockets  and  puts  them  on  the  bureau.)  Yes,  there's  some. 
Now  you  hold  the  stocking,  and  I'll  tie  it  up. 

Freddy  (as  they  do  the  tying).  Tommy,  what  do  you  say 
to  "stayin'  up  and  ketchin'  old  Santa  Claus  just  after  he 
has  come  down  the  chimney  and  is  filling  our  stockings? 

Tommy.  I  don't  believe  we  could  do  it.  He  doesn't 
come  till  twelve  o'clock,  and  we'd  get  to  sleep  before  then, 
even  if  we  was  to  try  our  hardest  to  keep  awake. 

Freddy.  I'll  tell  you  how  we  can  fix  the  business. 
There's  the  alarm-clock.  Set  it  to  go  off  at  twelve, 
and  that'll  bring  our  eyes  open  in  no  time.     We'll  turn 


Making  ready  }or  Santa  Clans 


14^  The  Country  School 

the  light  down  and  go  to  bed  with  our  clothes  on,  and  so 
be  all  ready  to  pop  out  on  the  old  fellow. 

Tommy.  Good  for  you,  Freddy  !  That's  just  the  thing. 
You  hang  up  the  stockings  and  put  up  the  signs  we  made, 
and  I'll  wind  the  alarm.  {Freddy  hangs  the  stockings 
on  some  nails  at  either  side  of  the  fireplace,  and  next  to  one 
pair  oj  stockings  adjusts  a  placard  on  which  he  has  lettered 
his  name,  and  next  to  the  other  pair  a  similar  placard  which 
hears  Tommy^s  name.  Meanwhile,  Tommy  winds  the 
alarm.) 

Freddy.  But  what  are  we  going  to  do  with  Santa  Claus 
when  we  ketch  him? 

Tommy.  I  hadn't  thought  of  that.  We'll  have  to  make 
some  kind  of  an  excuse,  'cause  he  might  get  mad. 

Freddy.  I  know!  We  just  want  to  find  out  if  there 
really  is  a  Santa  Claus.  We'll  tell  him  what  Sammy 
Tompkins  said  ^.bout  there  not  being  any  Santa,  and  he'll 
say  we  did  exactly  right. 

Tommy.  That's  so,  I  guess  he  will.  Well,  turn  down 
the  lamp  and  we'll  go  to  bed.  There,  crawl  in.  Now, 
let's  see  who'll  snore  first.  {Both  jail  to  imitating  snoring 
and  they  laugh  a  little  and  kick  about,  hut  soon  quiet  into 
sleep.) 

Santa  Claus.  {Comes  in  sojtly.)  All  right.  Everybody 
sleeping.  Well,  well,  stockings  all  labelled.  That's 
thoughtful.      I  don't    need   my  spectacles    to  read    this 


Schoolhouse  Entertainments 


149 


lettering !  {Puts  down  his  sack  and  jrom  it  -fills  the  stock- 
ings. Just  as  he  finishes  doing  this,  the  alarm  goes  off; 
that  is,  some  one  behind  the  curtain  sets  off  a  clock  at  the 
proper   moment.      Santa   tumbles   in   great   terror   to   the 


The  hoys  go  to  bed 

floor.)  Great  Caesar's  cats!  what  was  that?  In  all  the 
ten  thousand  years,  more  or  less,  that  I've  travelled  up 
and  down  this  old  world,  I've  never  heard  anything  like 
that.  Must  have  been  a  new  invention  or  an  earthquake. 
{Looks  about  jearjully.) 

Tommy.  {He  has  risen  on  his  elbow  and  speaks  in  a 
whisper.)   There's  Santa.     He  acts  kind  o'  scared. 

Freddy   {also  in  a  whisper).     Now's  our  time,  then ! 

Both  Boys.  {They  jump  jrom  the  bed,  dash  across  the 
floor,  and  grab  Santa  Claus  by  the  shoulders.)  There, 
we've  got  you ! 


150 


The  Country  School 


Caught 

Santa  Claus.  Why,  what's  the  matter?  Hold  on, 
hold  on ! 

Tommy.   Yes,  we'll  hold  on.     We've  got  you  ! 

Santa  Claus  (getting  up).  Well,  now,  what  are  you 
boys  after,  anyway?     What  was  that  noise  I  heard? 

Freddy.  {He  hangs  on  to  one  oj  Santa's  hands,  while 
Tommy  clings  to  the  other.)  Oh,  that  was  nothin'.  It  was 
just  one  of  these  little  alarm-clocks  to  wake  up  by. 

Santa  Claus.  Was  that  all?  I  thought  the  earth  had 
cracked  and  was  going  to  pieces.  But  what  has  got 
into  you  boys  to  come  pitching  on  to  me  the  way  you 
did? 

Tommy.   Why,  we  just  wanted  to  know  if  there  was  a 


Schoolhouse  Entertainments 


151 


Santa  Claus  or  not.     That's  all.     Sammy  Tompkins  said 
there  wa'n't.     But  we  knew  there  was. 

Santa  Claus.    Of  course  there  is.     Don't  you  see  all 
those  things  I've  put  in  your  stockings,  and  don't  you  see 


Santa  faces  the  audience 

that  tree  all  loaded  ?     Well,  boys,  I  can't  stop  any  longer. 

(Shakes  hands.)     I  wish  you  a  Merry  Christmas  (turns 

toward  the  audience),  and  I  wish  you  all  sl  Merry  Christmas. 

(Curtain) 


152  The  Country  School 

WASHINGTON'S  BIRTHDAY 
CHARACTERS 

Ephraim,  a  farmer.  ]  Boys    dressed   as 

Jabez,  a  neighbor  of  Ephraim's.        J      old  men. 
John,  dressed  as  Washington  —  the  tallest  and  oldest 
boy  of  a  group  of  children.  • 

Susy,  a  girl  dressed  as  Martha  Washington. 
Polly,  one  of  the  smaller  girls  dressed  as  a  little  Es- 
kimo. 

r  Dressed  as  a  German. 
Dressed  as  a  Dude. 
Dressed  as  an  Indian. 
Dressed  as  an  Irishman. 
.Dressed  as  an  Italian. 


Other 
Children 


The  only  things  bought  for  the  occasion  were  the  beards 
of  the  two  old  men.  The  rest  of  the  material  for  costumes 
was  hunted  up  in  home  closets  and  garrets.  Often  there 
was  no  very  close  resemblance  attained  to  the  characters 
represented,  but  there  was  always  a  sincere  attempt  to  get 
a  distinct  individuality,  and  the  result  was  in  every  instance 
satisfactorily  entertaining.  The  scene  was  made  to  bear 
some  resemblance  to  an  old-time  farmhouse  kitchen, 
with  an  open  fireplace  and  straight-backed  chairs.  This 
setting,  even  in  its  crudities,  was  much  to  the  liking  of 


Going  to  the  woods  for  the  Christmas  tree 


[/  O^   THE 


Schoolhouse  Entenainments  153 

the  children  who  were  the  actors,  and  they  went  through 
the  play  effectively,  where  they  would  have  failed,  had 
it  been  something  finer  that  was  outside  the  range  of  their 
experience.  The  touch  of  the  grotesque  in  the  names  and 
conversation  and  general  get-up  of  the  old  men  appealed 
strongly  to  the  children's  imaginations,  as  did  also  the 
m£Lsquerade  costuming  of  the  other  characters. 

Ephraim.  {Seated  by  his  fireside  reading  a  paper. 
Yawns.)  Oh  hum  I  I'm  gettin'  sleepy  so  early.  If  the 
children  wa'n't  away,  I'd  wind  the  clock  and  go  to  bed. 
(Slou%  heavy  jootsteps  are  heard  outside.  Ephraim  rises 
stiffly  and  stands  expectant,  while  Jabez  enters.)  WTiat ! 
that  you,  Jabez?  Glad  to  see  you.  {They  sJiake  hands, 
and  Ephraim  resumes  his  chair.)  Have  a  seat,  Jabez, 
have  a  seat. 

Jabez.  Well,  I  will  in  a  minute,  when  I  get  warmed  up. 
Kind  o'  shiver}'  out  to-night.  {Takes  off  his  hat  and 
stands  with  his  back  to  the  fire.)  Where's  Israel  and 
Maria  ? 

Ephraim.  Oh,  they  packed  up  yesterday  and  went 
down  to  Boston  to  spend  a  week  \'isitin'  some  of  Maria's 
relatives  that  live  there. 

Jabez.   Sho!   they  did,  did  they?    Hadn't  heard  of  it! 

Ephraim.  Yes,  and  they  perposed  that  the  children 
should  go  over  to  stay  with  their  uncles  and  aunts  at 
the  Comers  so  I  could  go  to  Boston,  too.     But  I  told  'em 


154  The  Country  School 

they  wouldn't  ketch  me  kitin'  off  so  far  at  my  age.  Might 
get  killed  or  something,  you  know. 

Jabez.  That's  so  !  Don't  take  much  to  get  killed  now- 
adays. Keeps  you  pretty  busy,  I  s'pose,  lookin'  after  the 
children  and  all  the  housework  and  barn  work  besides? 

Ephraim.  Well,  the  children  are  gettin'  old  enough  to 
help  more'n  you'd  think  —  John,  especially.  He's  most 
as  good  as  a  man  about  the  work  outdoors.  To-night 
they've  all  gone  off  somewhere. 

Jabez.    Didn't  they  tell  you  where  they  was  goin'? 

Ephraim.  No.  Said  'twas  a  secret.  It's  some  school 
party,  like  enough.  They  hitched  into  the  pung  right  after 
supper  and  off  they  went,  the  whole  bilin'  of  'em.  I 
don't  know  as  I  ought  to  'a'  let  little  Jim  and  Polly  go; 
but  John  promised  faithful  to  see  to  'em  and  get  'em  home 
airly. 

Jabez.  Well,  they  all  stopped  over  to  our  house.  That's 
the  way  I  happened  to  drop  in.  They  kep'  at  me  to  step 
over  here  an'  see  you,  sayin'  you'd  be  lonesome  and  one 
thing  and  another,  until  I  come. 

Ephraim.  Ha,  ha !  they're  up  to  some  rinktum  or 
other,  I'll  be  bound.     But  set  dovm,  Jabez. 

Jabez.  {Seating  himselj  and  holding  out  his  hands 
toward  the  blaze.)   Fire  feels  good  a  cold  night  like  this. 

Ephraim.  So't  does,  and  I  guess  I'd  better  be  puttin' 
on  another  stick.     There  ain't  many  has  these  roarin' 


Schoolhouse  Entertainments  155 

open  fires  in  these  times.     You  ain't  had  nothin'  over  to 
your  place  but  stoves  these  twenty  years,  have  you? 


Comfort  by  the  open  fire 

Jahez.  No,  all  our  fireplaces  was  bricked  up  long  ago. 
What's  that?  {Straightens  up,  and  looks  toward  the 
window.)  I  thought  I  heard  sleigh  bells  turnin'  into  the 
yard. 

Ephraim.  Sounds  like  the  pung,  but  the  children  wouldn't 
be  comin'  back  yet-awhile. 

Jabez.   I  ain't  dressed  up  for  company ! 

Ephraim.  I  ain't  neither,  nor  the  house  ain't !  {Both 
get  up  nervously.  Outside  there  are  cries  of  ^'Whoa, 
whoa!^^  j allowed  by  a  stamping  of  jeet  and  then  a  rap  at 


156 


The  Country  School 


the  door.)  Well,  there  they  be,  whoever 'tis  !  {Steps  toward 
the  door,  when  a  crowd  of  children  in  costume  hurst  in.) 

John.  {Dressed  as  Washington.)  Wish  you  both  a 
Merry  Christmas ! 

Ephraim.  Is  that  you,  John?  What  you  up  to  any- 
way ?     'Tain't  Christmas ! 

Children.   Well,  it's  Washington's  Birthday  ! 

Ephraim.   Is  it  ?     I  declare,  I  believe  it  is.     I'd  forgot. 


The  children  surprise  their  grandpas 

Polly.    {Dressed  as  a  little  Eskimo.)    This  is  a  s'prise 
party.  Grandpa ! 
Jabez.    {Nudges  Ephraim.)   She's  a  cute  one. 
John.   Yes,  that's  what  it  is,  and  we  dressed  up  to 


Schoolhouse  Entertainments  157 

represent  a  few  characters  for  you.  We  tried  to  make 
some  poetry  to  speak ;  but  when  it  rhymed  it  wa'n't  sense, 
and  when  it  was  sense  it  wa'n't  poetry.  So  we  give  that 
up  mostly,  and  we'll  have  to  tell  you  straight  out  what 
we  are.  Now,  I'm  General  Washington,  the  father  of 
his  country,  first  in  peace,  first  in  war,  and  first  in  the  hearts 
of  his  countrymen, 

Susy.  And  I'm  Martha,  his  wife,  mother  of  her  country, 
second  in  peace,  second  in  war,  and  second  in  the  hearts 
of  her  countrymen.     That's  what  John  said. 

Jahez.  Well,  I  don't  know  but  you  be !  I  hadn't 
thought  of  that. 

The  German.  I  came  from  Germany  to  help  make  this 
great  country. 

The  Irishman.  I  came  from  Ireland  to  help  make  this 
great  country. 

The  Italian.  And  I  came  from  Italy  to  help  make  this 
great  country.  {Suspended  from  his  shoulders  he  carries 
a  box  with  a  leg  underneath,  a  cloth  over  the  top,  and  a 
crank  attached  to  make  it  look  like  a  hand-organ.  Turns 
the  crank  while  some  one  behind  the  curtain  plays  "  Yankee 
Doodle^^  on  a  comb  or  harmonica.) 

The  Dude.   Where  I  came  from  there's  no  one  knows. 
But  I'm  an  American,  I  suppose. 
(After  he  speaks  he  marches  across  the  stage  and  back,  takes 
off  his  stovepipe  hat  and  makes  a  low  bow  to  the  audience.) 


158 


The  Country  School 


Polly.   I'm  a  little  Eskimo 

From  the  land  of  cold  and  snow. 
All  the  children.   We  all  help  make  the  nation, 
And  accept  the  invitation 
Of  this  country  good  and  free 
A  part  of  it  to  be. 
Jahez.   You  done  well,  children,  and  your  grandfathers 
are  both  proud  of  you,  ain't  we,  Ephraim? 

Ephraim.  Sartain,  sartain,  we  are  that,  and  I'm  goin' 
to  skirmish  around  in  the  buttery  and  see  if  I  can't  find 
some  refreshments.  But  first  let's  join  in  a  hearty  cheer 
for  Washington  and  Liberty ! 

All.   Hurrah  !     Hurrah  !     Hurrah  ! 
(Curtain) 


^sF^r 


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